Anita Maxwell’s ancestral journey began with a missing statue.

The bronze figure was of her great uncle Frank Gilbert, captain of several ferryboats who was often revered as one of the last of the “great Lake Washington steamer skippers.” The statue stood in the former Leschi Cafe in Seattle. Patrons would put a penny in the statue’s pocket and watch it roll down to his shoe.

When Maxwell’s sister came to visit her in Kirkland, they went to the restaurant and discovered the cafe had been sold to new owners. The statue had been removed.

Maxwell decided to pursue the statue to return it to her uncle’s hometown of Kirkland. But in her search for more information about the statue, Maxwell found pieces of history that linked her to family – and her family to Kirkland.

The outcome of three years of research was more than 200 pages of Maxwell’s genealogy she documented in a publication: “Kirkland Pioneers: The Gilberts and Their Families’ Journey.”

“It’s like being a detective and it’s very, very exciting,” Maxwell said of her quest to find familial information.

The best place for anyone to start searching for their family’s history is with information you already have, she explains.

When Maxwell’s mother passed away, she received her mother’s keepsakes, including a Lake Washington High School autograph book from 1905 that belonged to Maxwell’s grandmother. In it were dozens of autographs that Maxwell traced to her grandmother’s relatives.

“It was real neat because her mother signed the book and her father told her the best thing you could ever do through your life is to be honest and if you’re honest, those around you will have to reflect it,” Maxwell said. “So you got a feel about how they felt towards their daughter.”

She went to the Bellevue Regional Library and scoured microfiche of old Eastside newspapers, where she found her great-grandparents, Elmer and Jennie Gilbert, who settled in Kirkland in 1889. Elmer was a prominent hotelier, blacksmith and property owner/developer in Kirkland. He owned two homes on Market Street, including a five bedroom home he later sold to his son for $1.

In her publication, a newspaper article refers to Elmer as “one of the progressive men of Kirkland” who erected a building that was occupied as a blacksmith shop, garage and the Independent – one of Kirkland’s first newspapers.

Elmer also owned the Gilbert Hotel, which was located where Heritage Hall is now. A newspaper ad she found through the Kirkland Heritage Society describes the hotel with a beautiful lake view, large comfortable rooms and swings for the children.

Elmer later brought Carl Knauf – Maxwell’s grandfather – into the blacksmith business with him and they specialized in horseshoeing. Knauf later invented a lawnmower sharpener that he manufactured and sold, which earned him an article in the Eastside Journal in 1928 that tells about his invention.

“I am so grateful the newspapers were there,” Maxwell said, noting the library was missing dates from 1920-1923, when her great-grandfather’s hotel burned down. “My biggest help of all to put together the feeling of the family – not statistics, but feeling – was the newspapers.”

She opens her book to a copy of a newspaper clipping with her grandfather Knauf’s obituary. It describes how he gave out camellia and rhododendron shrubs to the community, including one “to your editor, which will be doubly prized as a growing memorial to a fine man.”

The newspapers also reflected the city at the time and how Kirkland was famous for blackberries, potatoes and chickens, she added.

Maxwell found librarians to be a great source for information during her research. Her dad’s side of the family lived in a small town in Massachusetts, so the librarian there went through the microfiche and mailed Maxwell copies of relevant information. Another librarian in Chicago sent the actual microfiche to the Bellevue Library, where Maxwell learned more about her family.

The Internet and sites such as ancestry.com helped her locate original documents, including family member’s immigration papers and passports.

The most difficult part of the process was tracking down some of her female relatives, whose last names changed when they got married.

One of seven children who grew up in California, Maxwell says the only relative they knew in Kirkland was their grandmother.

“So we were bobbing along on a lake without a real connection to family,” said Maxwell, who has lived in Kirkland for 13 years.

Now, she has a deep connection to family.

“It was like you had a family. You didn’t just come from an egg, but you do have relatives all around. And I think the greatest thing was finding them.”

She recommends that others learn about their ancestry as well.

“Before your grandmother passes away or your mother or uncles or aunts – sit down with them,” she says. “Get their story. You may not want to write a book or go research, but you might want to know a connection to family, so suddenly you belong.”

As for her uncle Frank’s statue, Maxwell is determined to find it.

“I don’t want the statue for me. I want to give it to the City of Kirkland. It’s part of their heritage.”

Her uncle was a captain on Lake Washington for 50 years and captained the last journey of the ferry boat from Kirkland to Seattle. He later became first mate on the Kalakala ferry.

She says she hopes the owners who have the statue “turn it loose” as “it’s a history that should be shared by the people of Kirkland.”