“Lily is Eddie’s older sister,” Mom continued. “She had her sixtieth birthday party when I was in town, and they invited me along.” She pointed at the woman standing in the center, wearing a light blue shirtdress with a white belt. She had shoulder-length black hair and her arm was around an older woman who looked a lot like her, but had white hair.

“Who’s that? Her mother?”

“No, I think that’s . . .” Mom turned the photo over and I saw there were names written on the back. “That’s Judy Fong, Eddie and Lily’s aunt. That’s right, Judy also worked at that lab.”

“Really? She’s so old.”

“She was retired by 1997, but yes, I think they both worked there since the 1950s.”

I took the photo and studied it more closely. I realized Lily was the only person looking at the camera; everyone else was looking at one another as if they were still figuring out where to stand. “Who are the other people?” I asked.

Mom pointed to the thin, white-haired man beside Judy. “That’s her husband, Francis, and next to him is their son and daughter-in-law, and that little girl is Judy and Francis’s granddaughter.”

“Is that Eddie?” I asked, pointing at the man on the other side of Lily.

“Yes. And that’s his wife. Their children were grown by then, so they weren’t in LA. Eddie came down for Lily’s birthday.”

Mom passed me the second photo. “This is Lily and Judy at work in the 1960s.”

The black-and-white photo showed a younger Lily and Judy standing in front of a bank of ancient computers, the kind I’d seen in documentaries and movies about the Apollo program.

“Is Lily still working at JPL?” I asked.

“I think she must be retired by now. Eddie’s seventy-five, and she’s older than him. She can’t be working anymore.”

“I wonder if Aunt Tammy knew them.”

“You’ll have to ask her.” Mom handed me the envelope that the photos had come in. “These are for you. If you ever want to get in touch, Eddie left his email address in there, too. He knows everyone in the family. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.”

Inside the envelope was a small piece of folded paper. I pulled it out and found a brief note.

Dear Aria, I hope you enjoy these photos of your ancestors. Please write to me anytime. Your first cousin twice (!) removed, Eddie Hu.

He had written an AOL email address beneath his name.

“What does ‘twice removed’ mean?” I asked.

“I don’t really know. My grandfather was Eddie’s uncle, so his father was . . . my great-uncle.”

“When did they come to America? They must have come before you.”

“Yes, I think Eddie’s father came before World War II. So, that branch was here long before me.”