Every year John sent out a family update at Christmas. He included a recent photo of the family. He and Jean valued the friends they met during all their travels and this was their way of keeping in touch. They received similar letters from many of those friends with updates about their families.

John kept copies of the letters he sent in a box with a file that he labeled "Heritage." In his heritage file John wrote down some of his ancestral history and kept a detailed history of his children which included their spouse and children's information. He kept the file current until 1996, the year he died.

During the 1990's John sent out an attachment which read:

"NOTE: In reviewing our file of Christmas letters from 1956-1990, we found that our files were incomplete for the following years:

1957-1958 - French Years

1962-1970 - Hectic years of getting established after my Army career.

If we can obtain a complete file, it will give a wonderful picture of over a third of the century and of our family life. If we can procure a reasonably complete file, we plan to have it printed and bound for distribution to members of our families and friends who would desire it.

If any of our friends or family still have copies of any of these letters, we would appreciate receiving them."