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READERS' DIRECTORY.
GENEALOGIES and pedigrees are published in nearly as many forms and with
as great a variety of classifications as they have authors and compilers. Each
writer has his own ideal, and composes accordingly. I have consulted nearly
all family histories now in our New England public libraries, and have found
many very comprehensive arrangements of family names, but have not adopted
any of them as a whole. In reading this book the table of contents should
be consulted; here will be found the names by which I have denominated the
numerous branches and sub-branches of the family; in most instances each
will be distinguished by the name of the town, village, or district, where the
ancestors settled, or where a majority of the families have lived. Under
these captions each family will be classified by generation, beginning with the
name of the person heading the list and running down to youngest children.
Each person's name will be attended by a small figure standing above the type
line, called a "superior," which denotes the generation to which that indi-
vidual belongs. All of the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth generations
will follow in rotation, beginning in each instance with the children of the
eldest brother. When passing from a higher to a lower generation the words
"second generation," or "fourth generation," as the case may be, will be
found between the paragraphs. By this arrangement it will be observed that
own cousins, being of the same generation, will stand in one category, but
their names separated by a light double dash.
There will also be a heavy-faced figure in a parenthesis (4) following each
person's name, at the heads of paragraphs, which denotes the number of per-
sons in that branch family of the same Christian name, and in every instance
will have reference to the first name of the individual. Thus, Nathaniel (6),
son of Nathaniels (5), will show that in that particular branch of the family
there had appeared five Nathaniels before the one first mentioned, and that
three generations had been previously recorded. By this simple arrangement no
two person's of the same Christian name need be confounded, as they will in
no instance stand connected with the same figures. In case a person's name
stands in its proper place in some earlier branch of a family, as Thomas² (4),
and that same person becomes the head of a sub-branch, his
name will
