In 1957 or 1958, my mother purchased a magnificent roseword Steinway demi-grand (7'3") piano that was made in 1877 or 1879 by Steinway & Co. in New York, whose records indicate that it was first sold by Steinway to someone named Woodworth in Rochester, New York in 1879. Steinway's records end with the piano's original Woodworth owner. The piano has been in my family home in Rochester ever since 1957-8. I do not know whether my mother purchased it directly from someone in the Woodworth family, whether it was sold through an estate, or whether there was/were another owner/s in between its original owner and my family.

There are quite a few Woodworths in and around Rochester, the surrounding counties, Syracuse, etc. and I would like to find anyone who knows anything about the history of this piano, who originally owned it, the family that owned it, its history in the Woodworth family, why it left the family, etc. All those things I would like to know, for my own information, and, even more important, out of respect for this magnificent instrument, which the Steinway dealer has likened to a Stradivarius violin; there will be no more like it.

Moreover, if the piano is ever sold, I would like at least to have tried to find anyone in its original family who might have wanted to have the opportunity to buy it and return it to the family which originally purchased it from Steinway, and for whom it may have been made.