This collection contains material in the following formats and of the following nature: printed family genealogy research from aforementioned families; original family photos; genealogical conference notes and information; correspondence and bills regarding genealogy; family scrapbooks; diaries (written by Ruth Whitright Sowerby); the Sowerby family crest on a wood block; cemetery records, including photos of gravesites and gravestone rubbings; newspaper clippings of prominent musicians; other ephemera, including a poem ("Keith Sowerby"); serials such as "The Birthday Book", the 4-H Dairy Club Record; Potato Club Record; and newsletters from the Leo Sowerby Foundation, related to one ancestor of particular note (as described in the following paragraph).

One ancestor of note is Leo Salkeld Sowerby. Leo Sowerby (1895-1968), born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was an American composer and church musician. He attended Central High School in Grand Rapids and later studied composition at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. He also spent time in France During World War I as a bandmaster. Sowerby was the first composer to be awarded the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome (1921). The cantana he wrote in 1944, "Canticle of the Sun" won him the Pulitzer Price for music (1946). His legacy as a musician includes more than 500 works. Sowerby was called the "Dean of American church music" in the early to mid 20th century.

Additionally, information about Ellis Crandall is included in the research. Ellis Crandall was a violin maker in Rockford. He is related to Keith Sowerby, who is a descendant of Freeman Addision (an ancestor of Flat River valley, currently Greenville Michigan).