INTRODUCTION AND COMPENDIUM.
9
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branches of the family.
For names and places of residence I have consulted
the probate records and registers of deeds found in our county houses. Such
records have been examined by me personally in several States, and the expense
of traveling, to say nothing of my time, has been considerable, having made
two tours through the middle, western, and southern States, besides canvassing-
New England very carefully. I have spent days upon my knees, in the heat of
summer and cold of winter, cutting away the moss from old tombstones, that I
might copy the inscriptions which, had become nearly obliterated by the wear of
time. Months have been spent in the dusky archives of our public libraries in
many New England cities, and I have caused to be examined the records at
Washington covering the whole period of American history. Nearly every county
in the southern States has been canvassed by letters and printed circulars.
In
Another prolific medium through which much information has reached me,
was advertising in local newspapers and historical magazines, both in this
country and Europe. Some of these "queries" have been duplicated through
the papers in several counties, and have, in many instances, brought me into
communication with valuable correspondents and sources of historical data,
that otherwise could not have been reached by me; indeed, by this means
many branch families have been found, and ancient portraits, views of resi-
dences, and coats-of-arms brought to light and placed in my hands.
many papers and magazines, I have published articles of considerable length
on our family history, which have reached distant kinspeople, awakening in
their minds sufficient interest to prompt them to assist me in my investiga-
tions. In addition to these printed communications, I have circulated among
the members of the family about three thousand blanks with printed headings,
three thousand descriptive circulars, and two thousand copies of a prospectus
issued in 1876. Many of these were filled out with records and returned to me,
but several hundred were never heard from. Besides the expense of printing,
advertising, and postage, considerable money has been expended for copies of
engraved portraits, and views of foreign family seats, which have been forwarded
to inspire an interest where all other expedients have proved a failure.
To acquaint myself with the customs of those nations among whom our
families have figured during the centuries of their existence, it has been neces-
sary for me to read extensively. An American author writes at great disad-
vantage in consequence of his being so far removed from sources of information
that are in other countries, and in being unfamiliar with the systems of gov-
ernment, habits of the people, and the terms used in their literature, especially
when his work reaches back to so remote a date as does this book. Having
commenced with the best histories of the Scandinavian races, I traced the
customs and character of those people downward through their migrations,
conquests, settlements in other European countries, and establishment in Nor-
mandy in France, where we find the first mention of our family under a dis-
tinctive surname. Thence my reading traced them through their wanderings
into Germany, Italy, Russia, Iceland, Scotland, England, and the islands of
the seas. It was necessary to learn of the arts of war employed in mediæval
and feudal times, to acquaint myself with the ancient system of heraldry,
names and grades of rank in civil and military official stations, the holding
and entail of landed estates, and to acquire a correct knowledge of the tech-
nical language used in the literature contemporary with those generations
whose history I wished to record. Having been so long resident in Scotland,
multiplying and forming distinct branches, settled in widely separated localities,
always advancing with the enlightenment and progress of the nation, changing
