This episode was originally published on December 5, 2017.

In Episode 20 of Brooklyn Historical Society's podcast Flatbush + Main, co-hosts Zaheer Ali and Julie Golia use one seemingly inconsequential manuscript collection to explore themes of memory and history-making over many generations. In 1915, Brooklynite Francis Morrell wrote a small tract called "Recollections of Old Williamsburgh." This self-published work of genealogy reminds us that historical writing tells us just as much about the time that it was written as about the time period it purports to study.