2
INTRODUCTION AND COMPENDIUM.
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distant States, had settled as well as to gain a knowledge of the personal ap-
pearance and habits of the heads of the early families. On returning to my own
home I arranged and classified my notes, the first written basis of this book,
and instituted an extensive correspondence at once, directing my attention
especially to the acquisition of genealogical information of the descendants
of my
own ancestor direct, having no object beyond an attempt to make
out a tabular pedigree, to be framed and kept in my house. Failing to trace
by correspondence several branches broken from the parent stock, I found it
necessary to advertise freely in the newspapers in several States, hoping thereby
to find the "lost Joseph." In answer to these published inquiries I received
many communications from persons bearing our surname, whose families I could
not then connect with my own. Letters of this class continued to accumulate
as I extended the circle of my investigations, and I was soon aware that our
clan had become so numerous that my original plan would be impracticable;
hence, knowing by this time that there were in the United States several branches
bearing our surname, that were descended from as many distinct ancestors, I
abandoned my first plan and adopted one of a broader scope, namely, that of com-
piling a genealogy of all the American families, the orthography of whose names
seemed to point to a common derivation. Having fully matured my new plan,
I multiplied my queries by correspondence, circulars, and advertisements in
historical magazines and newspapers. My mind was now fully enlisted in the
work of research, and I decided to "leave no stone unturned" under which
there was the least hope of finding a link of our family chain that would add
to the interest of my proposed "book of chronicles."
Some families had early removed to the far west, others to Vermont and Mas-
sachusetts, and a few to the eastern section of Maine. More than seventy years
had elapsed since any communication had passed between the New England and
western families, and their address, in consequence of change of names in new
States, and removals, had been lost, and a long time passed before any infor-
mation concerning our western friends could be obtained. At length, however,
my advertisement reached them, and with the most inexpressible gladness they
reported themselves. I shall always remember with emotions of pleasure the
satisfaction I experienced when I read the first letter from a representative of
the family in Ohio, whither they had emigrated in the year 1800. I made haste
to acquaint my aged grandfather with the fact that several of his own cousins,
with whom he spent many pleasant days in his childhood, were still living, and
that they remembered him well. On hearing the intelligence the dear old man
was overcome with emotion and wept for joy. The communications that followed
were filled with touching reminiscences of the days when the several families
were living neighbors in New England.
During the years I was collecting the records of my own family connection,
great confusion was occasioned in consequence of the local mingling of the
families that were offshoots of different original stocks. Many descendants of
my ancestor had moved to the eastern part of Maine, and were soon living
alongside of families named Ridley, who had come from Cape Cod, Massachu-
setts, a few years previously; and having assumed that all were originally
from one ancestry, the Ridlon family soon changed their name to Ridley; this
mutation of the surname, supplemented by the frequent correspondence of ages
and Christian names between members of the two families, made it very difficult
to properly classify their records. The same embarrassment attended my
researches in the western and southern States.
Many of my advertisements
were copied from western to southern newspapers, and I soon found myself in
