4
INTRODUCTION AND COMPENDIUM.
project to myself for a considerable time; but so many calls were made by
members of our family in America, for the results of my original venture, that
a confession of my latest plans was my only apology for what seemed to
others an unnecessary delay on my part. "At my first answer no man stood
with me." To my relatives and acquaintances my undertaking was "a castle
in the air," my "head was turned," and my "whole time was being wasted."
To a less determined mind the work would have seemed too much for one to
accomplish, but being confident from my previous success that I should not
fail, I asked my friends and correspondents to have patience, and, life being
spared, I would produce what had been promised. But, as I had anticipated,
many were unwilling to be identified with what appeared to be a "wild goose
chase," and at my solicitations for aid would ask, "What will all your labor
amount to?" "What will your book be good for if completed?"
"How many
years will it take to finish the work?" etc., etc. Having become better
acquainted with the value of such a book than I was when my relatives "made
light of it" and manifested so much indifference and stupidity, I shall now set
forth some of the valuable qualities found in a book of this class.
To me the fact that no attempt had ever been made to preserve in perma-
nent form our family history, seemed a sufficient inducement to justify me in
making very reasonable effort to procure the materials necessary for such a
book as would be of interest to the rising generation. Like all historians, I
soon learned that traditionary information, when transmitted by aged people
from generation to generation, becomes exaggerated and modified, and that if
those who may bear our family name in years to come would possess anything
like a correct knowledge of their progenitors, it must be handed down to
them by some accurate and enduring medium. The advanced state of civil-
ization seems to demand that every one, as he goes forth to mingle with his
fellow-men and assume the responsibilities of his generation, shall become
possessed of a fund of information sufficient to qualify him to converse intel-
ligently and instructively with those into whose society he must be constantly
thrown; he should be acquainted with the constitution and history of his
country, and the principles of government. If, then, the history of the origin,
growth, and prosperity of nations be considered a subject worthy of study,
why should it be thought unimportant to know something of the inner circle,
of the parts and constituent elements that compose the nations and govern-
ments of the world? Certainly it is a worthy motive to wish to know the his-
tory of those family predecessors in whose veins flowed the same blood that
now animates our own frames; those ancestors who have cut away the forests
to hew out homes for themselves and their children; the fathers and mothers
to whom we are indebted for the names we bear. But, strange as it may
appear, there are hundreds of New England families that have no traditionary
knowledge of their ancestors; they do not know whether they were derived
from the Celts or Scandinavians; they cannot tell the names of their grand-
parents. There is no excuse for such ignorance and stupidity, nor is it to be
commended as having any claims to respect. Such a state of indifference
respecting family history may have been "winked at" in colonial times, when
the advantages of education were so meagre that few learned to write, but it
is now unnecessary and inexcusable.
A well-arranged book of this class has value from several considerations, among
them the following which must commend themselves to all intelligent readers:
First, from the interest we are supposed to possess in the names we bear. Whose
interest is not involved in the family name by which they are identified? If
