Part 1

CONCERNING GENEALOGIES

BEING SUGGESTIONS OF VALUE FOR ALL INTERESTED IN FAMILY HISTORY

BY

FRANK ALLABEN

Director of the Genealogical and Biographical Department of The Grafton Press; Compiler of the Biographical Volumes of The Memorial History of New York and of Leslie's History of Greater New York

THE GRAFTON PRESS 70 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK

Copyright 1904 by THE GRAFTON PRESS

PREFACE

This little book puts the pleasure of tracing one's ancestry within reach of those who have had no previous practice. It covers every phase of the subject--the sources of information, the methods of research, the compiling, the printing, and the publishing of a genealogy.

Strong emphasis is laid upon the importance of employing the historical method, without which no genealogical work can become authoritative. If we may judge from most of the family histories in print, a vigorous protest against pernicious methods should be lodged with professional genealogists as well as with amateurs.

Special attention is also called to the radically different plans for genealogical works, one tracing the many descendants of a common ancestor, the other tracing the many ancestors of a common descendant. There is a general drift toward the latter, many having discovered the fascination of exploring their direct lines of descent who would not care to trace the collateral branches of a family "tribe." But a detailed plan of work devoted to the exhibit of the many lines of one's own ancestry is here formulated for the first time. This "Grafton Plan," as we have called it,--already carried into execution, and approved by experience,--will appeal to thousands for whom "tribal" genealogies have little interest.

Our little volume also offers something more than a mere theory of how to proceed in genealogical work. It tells of labor-saving notebooks devised for each kind of genealogy, and explains ways in which our own genealogical department is placed at the service of the reader.

FRANK ALLABEN.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I ANCESTRY HUNTING 9

II THE JOYS OF RESEARCH 19

III COMPILING 29

IV THE "CLAN" GENEALOGY 37

V THE "GRAFTON" GENEALOGY 46

VI THE PRINTING 56

VII PUBLISHING 64

CONCERNING GENEALOGIES

I

ANCESTRY HUNTING

Everyone has leisure moments which are apt to hang heavy upon one's hands unless employed in some sort of recreation. One turns to golf and outdoors, another goes forth with gun or rod, a third arms himself with a camera. Many dabble a little in science. Some take to the telescope and star-gazing, while the microscope claims others, who haunt scummy ponds with jars and bottles in search of diatoms, and other denizens of a drop of stagnant water. One goes in for bugs, another for ferns or fungi. Others, of a bookish turn of mind, do their hunting in the dark corners of second-hand bookstores, hoping to stumble upon a first edition or some other treasure.

But it is doubtful if the whole range of hobbies can produce anything half so fascinating as the hunt for one's ancestry. This combines the charm and excitement of every other pastime. What sportsman ever bagged such royal game as a line of his own forebears? What triumph of the rod and reel ever gave the thrill of ecstasy with which we land an elusive ancestor in the genealogical net? If any proof be needed of the fascination of this pursuit, behold the thousands who are taking it up! The nooks and crannies of civilization are their hunting-grounds--any corner where man has left a documentary trace of himself. Behold them, eager enthusiasts, besieging the libraries, poring over tomes of deeds and wills and other documents in State and county archives, searching the quaint and musty volumes of town annals, thumbing dusty pages of baptismal registers, and frequenting churchyards to decipher the fast-fading names and dates on mossgrown tombstones, yellow and stained with age, or cracked and chipped by the frosts and rains of many seasons!

A tidal wave of ancestry-searching has indeed swept over the country. Genealogical and biographical societies have been organized. Periodicals have sprung up which confine themselves exclusively to this subject. Newspapers are devoting departments to it. The so-called patriotic societies and orders have become a host, with branches in nearly every State. They count their members by tens of thousands, their rolls are steadily increasing, and new societies are constantly being organized. There is scarcely an achievement in which our ancestors took part which has not been made the rallying-point of some flourishing society. All these draw life and nourishment from the mighty stream of genealogical research. We must prove that we have had ancestors, and that one or more of them had the distinction celebrated by the particular organization at whose door we knock for admission.

Librarians and the custodians of public records bear witness to this great movement. The libraries have become wonderfully popular, thronged by multitudes who have enrolled themselves in the army of amateur genealogists. So onerous has become the work of handing out historical and genealogical books that in some large libraries such works have been gathered into alcoves which are thrown open to the public, where the ancestry-hunter may help himself.

Formerly such public records as deeds and wills constituted the special preserve of the lawyer. But his monopoly is a thing of the past. The genealogist has invaded this domain and established equal rights. He still leaves to the lawyer the dry searching of titles to property, choosing for himself the pleasanter task of sifting out important data for the biography of an ancestor, or for the proofs of a line of descent.

Old church record books, with their marriage and baptismal registers, have acquired an extraordinary value. In many cases these volumes have been rescued out of dark corners and from beneath accumulations of dust and débris where they had been tossed as ecclesiastical junk. But the pastors and church secretaries who unearthed them, at the instance of inquiring genealogists, have now discovered a profitable occupation for their leisure in transcribing items for correspondents. Indeed, a number of societies are now engaged in collecting these old registers, or in making transcripts for their archives.

What is the subtle attraction which draws these multitudes--the fascination which lures so many into genealogical research? We have hinted that the pursuit of ancestry yields the exhilaration both of the chase and the stillhunt, kindling the suspense of expectation into sudden thrills of discovery, as keen as those when the wary canvas-back flies low over the blind, or a pair of antlers comes crashing through the brush.

But while genealogical research affords all the excitement of the chase, it is followed by no reproach for having taken life, but by the permanent satisfaction peculiar to the benefactor of mankind. The ancestry-hunter does not kill, but brings to life. He revives the memories of the dead, and benefits the world with an honorable contribution to the science of history. For a trophy he does not show a string of fish, nor a few birds and skins to distribute among friends, but a genuine historical work of ever-increasing value, which hands down his name to an appreciative posterity.

We have compared the peculiar delight of establishing a family link, long shrouded in mystery or attended with harassing doubts, to the angler's joy in landing a notable catch. In both cases the issue may long hang in the balance between skilful manipulation and a possible stroke of bad luck, which no skill can guard against. The fish may be reeled in or given his head without a single mistake of judgment. But who can foresee the sharp rock, the hidden snag, which cuts or entangles the line? And so, too, is skill most richly rewarded in searching for ancestors; but what can it avail against the positive wiping out of indispensable records?

We recall one of these genealogical tragedies, which cast its shadow over a remarkable record of successes in tracing a number of interesting lines for a gentleman who could start us off with no more than the names and birth-places of his parents. Two lines remained which pointed back by strong evidence to European connections of the titled class. All that was needed in one case was a clue to show to which of several branches of the family in Great Britain, the first American ancestor belonged. But to this day that clue has eluded every attempt to pick it up by research here or abroad.

Cases which are parallel up to this point are not uncommon. But the tragedy has yet to be told. At the colonial homestead of this ancestor we learned that his personal papers had, indeed, been preserved from generation to generation. Their last owner, a maiden lady, had carefully kept them in an old trunk, which was itself an ancient heirloom. But she had never taken the pains to examine their contents, and only a short time before our investigation brought us upon the scene, these hoary documents, after surviving the vicissitudes of seven generations, had been destroyed in a fire which reduced the old house to ashes!

Who can express the sorrow of it? No finder of Captain Kidd's buried treasure could gloat over Spanish doubloons and glittering gems with half the delight with which we would have contemplated those ancient parchments. How fondly our fingers would have turned the precious pages and smoothed the creases of those yellow papers! But now no hand may touch them, no antiquarian's eye explore nor pen exploit their contents to the world! If our friend had only sought his forebears earlier, and launched us sooner upon the voyage of discovery!

The other line, it is true, had no disappointments for us. It even yielded the discovery and possession of an original parchment pedigree, signed by an official herald of arms, which the ancestor had brought over with him, exhibiting his descent from the many Sir Williams and Sir Johns of an ancient Lincolnshire family extending back nearly to the Conqueror. It also enabled us to confirm the connection through official sources in England, and to prove that the emigrant was the son and heir in the line of primogeniture. For these kind favors, we trust that we were truly thankful. But they could scarcely comfort us for the lost papers which might have carried back another line in the same distinguished fashion.

Thus, genealogy has its griefs as well as its joys--some disappointments among many triumphs. But so it is with life and with everything worth while. Who would care to measure skill with a gamefish if the creature had no chance? Or who would glory in the death of a bull-moose that a look could bowl over? In genealogical research it is the part played by skill and by the unknown quantities which gives to it all the fascination, with none of the risks and evils, of a great game of skill and chance.

Another pleasure is the sensation of original discovery. Would you experience the feelings of a Columbus? Then set forth to explore the unsailed seas and hidden continents of your own or some other person's ancestry! If your own happens to be virgin territory you are one of fortune's favorites, with the ripest joys of life just before you. Nor is it any question of great achievements or high social position enjoyed by the ancestor. The truth is that all ancestors are remarkable persons. In the first place they are _our_ ancestors, and in the second place it is a noteworthy fact, as mysterious as delightful, that every homely feature about them wears a wondrous glamour and dignity. Their homesteads, their property, their church affiliations, their signatures, any little act of barter or sale,--all these items create an absorbing interest as they stand recorded in old archives.

We remember, as if it were yesterday, the peculiar charm of the simplest details in clearing up our family history. The most that parents, aunts and great-uncles could give was a vague tradition of a certain great-great-grandfather, a captain in the Revolution whose chief distinction seemed to have been his success in getting captured by the British and having his silver knee buckles stolen by a Tory. Of course he subsequently escaped, met that Tory, knocked him down, and recaptured the silver buckles.

Turning to the records we were able to identify this energetic patriot without trouble, although in the process he dwindled from a "captain" to a "sergeant," and even held the latter title on a rather uncertain tenure, having been once "reduced." Indeed, his military record ends (shall we confess it?) with the rather compromising word, "deserted." But what of that? This flesh-and-blood progenitor is much more to our liking than any starched and laced dignitary of the imagination. And while history saith not concerning the knee buckles, that he was ready with his fists seems altogether probable in the light of his subsequent career. His title of "captain" was acquired at sea. He commanded a craft in the waters of Long Island, where he met an untimely death--through "foul play," says that old gossip Tradition, whose tongue we dare not trust. Features of mystery still remain, and if we knew all, it is possible that we could lay claim to a picturesque pirate--a most desirable addition to any family line, and especially so if he escaped hanging.

Much as we delighted in this liberty-loving individual, the reader will understand that we thought well to look backward for a more sober character to maintain the family dignity. We found several who filled the rôle of quiet respectability to perfection, and thus reached the emigrant-founder of the line, a gentleman who drew our special affections by the extreme littleness of his greatness and the romantic character of his surroundings. He was of French Huguenot descent, a weaver by trade, and possessed of a "frame for a dwelling house ... twenty foot in length and sixteen foot in bredth," and other realty in the shape of an acre of woodland and an acre of upland "lying in a place called Hog-Neck," bounded by "a cove west" and "ye Goose Creek north." What distinctions! Not every one can boast such a progenitor, a wielder of loom and shuttle on the lordly promontory of Hog-Neck, where the gentle waters of Goose Creek flow into the sea, near the ancient town of Southold.

We could not doubt that such a character had other claims to distinction; and sure enough, the achievement of having loitered in this world for ninety-six and one-half years is carved upon his tombstone in the old cemetery where he rests beside a third wife, who herself attained to ninety-two summers! Peace be to their ashes! We can almost see this famous ancestor, the patriarch of the village, toiling down its long street under the weight of the honor of his many years, responding to the greetings of man, woman and child with a cheery nod and a pleasant French accent. We would not have one single feature changed in order to place him upon a higher pedestal.

His father and grandfather, as we learn from old documents, were elders and leaders in one of the French churches established in England by the Huguenots in the sixteenth century. But the dignity of these men, banished from their native soil by the atrocities of St. Bartholomew's day, can not outshine the quiet glory of the aged weaver of Hog-Neck and Goose Creek, nor even put to shame the restless career of their later descendant of the Revolutionary epoch. In fact, throughout the entire ancestral line we found every progenitor perfect in his place and after his kind. And so has it ever been with the genealogist, and so will it be to the end of time.

We may add that genealogical work is literary work--a fact which adds immensely to its fascination. The genealogist tastes all the delights of authorship, added to those of research and discovery; and it is the purpose of this little volume to bring these pleasures within the reach of all. For is there a reader of books who would not take delight in making one, if he thought himself competent and the labor not too great?

II

THE JOYS OF RESEARCH

It will not require much space to indicate the main sources of information in genealogical research. Having decided to trace back our own lines, we naturally turn first to the living members of our family. If we have parents living and accessible,--grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, cousins, or others who are likely to know more about the family than we do,--let us consult them, personally if we may, by letter if we must. We expect to learn most from the older members of the family, provided that their faculties are unimpaired. Certainly we should make no delay in applying to the aged, before the opportunity passes away forever.

But when we have gathered all the facts and traditions which these sources can contribute, the main work of research begins. Our advice at this point can be given here only in a general way. "The next thing to do" depends upon the peculiar circumstances of each case--upon the known facts, the localities to-which they point, and the character of the resources in each locality. We have devised a plan of rendering assistance in such cases to those who need it which will be explained at the end of this chapter.

In a general way we here refer to the wills, deeds, intestate records, tax and court records on file at the county seats, and to the miscellaneous records, often of great value for genealogical purposes, on file at the State Capitals. The value of church registers has been mentioned. They contain membership rolls, and records of marriages, baptisms and deaths. In many cases the date of birth is given with that of baptism. In New England and many other places, the old town records are exceedingly valuable sources, the births of children being frequently recorded, besides early property transactions, contracts, and much else showing the status of the early settlers in the community.

The records in old family Bibles are often "shortcuts," while other family papers, if old, frequently have a special value. The records on tombstones are a resource apparent to all. The Pension Bureau at Washington has records of the soldiers of the Revolutionary and later wars who drew pensions. Early warrants for the survey of lands are recorded at many State Capitals. A large miscellaneous collection of historical manuscripts, many of them containing genealogical information, will be found in the custody of historical and genealogical societies.

The resources in libraries are almost endless. The genealogical works already published are a host in themselves, to which we must add the genealogies given completely, or in part, in periodicals. The line we are interested in may have appeared in one of them, or may be referred to in their pages. Certain indexes in book form help us to find them, and should be consulted at the outset.

Many States have published their archives, and of town and county histories there are not a few. A number of important church registers can be consulted in print, and even the tombstone inscriptions have, in some cases, been published. The Revolutionary records of most of the States are now accessible in printed form, as are many of the valuable papers held by historical and genealogical societies. In certain libraries can be found a large collection of exceedingly valuable genealogical and heraldic works covering the countries which contributed the bulk of early emigration to the American colonies and States--Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Germany. The publishers of this book have arranged a means for placing these and other library sources at the service of those who do not have access to them, or who have not the time or disposition to consult such authorities for themselves. This plan is described at the end of the chapter.

Having learned all that relatives can tell us about our family, we are ready to turn to these other sources. All systems of gathering information are systems of taking notes. Thus the question of proper notebooks presents itself. This matter, however, we relegate to other chapters, in connection with the two plans for genealogical works, for each plan has its suitable notebook. But here we simply remark that the question is all-important. Upon its solution depends our escape from the old task-master, Drudgery, who stands ready to burden the pleasure of our pursuit with pains and toil if we do not circumvent him.

Use plenty of paper, writing on one side only, in a plain hand. Write with pen and ink where possible. A good fountain pen is a handy friend, though some libraries do not permit its use when consulting books. In such cases a lead pencil must be employed. We prefer a moderately soft one, which makes a heavy black mark without tiring the hand by requiring much pressure, and we carry several, well sharpened, with a knife to keep them so.

There is only one right way of making notes, and that is to give the full authority for our facts when we note the facts themselves. This applies to personal information, as well as to that obtained from books and documents. Take the case of the information obtained from our relatives. Was some of it secured by correspondence? If so, the letter itself gives the name and address of the informant, together with the date. This is as it should be. But if it is not certain whether some part of the contents is based upon the personal knowledge of the writer, the statements of another, hearsay, or general tradition, it is well to write again and have the source of the information clearly established. Only so can we rightly judge of its value. If our information was obtained in a conversation, the name and address of the informant should be noted, with the date of the interview. The foundation of his information should also be learned and recorded.

The moment of first hearing the facts, when the joy of discovery and the satisfaction of making progress are upon us, is the psychological moment for making our notes. It is a positive delight while the fever of enthusiasm is high. As our informant begins his story, let us interrupt with the cry of the enthusiast, "I must jot that down!" Out comes our notebook, conveying to our friend a very distinct impression of the importance of being accurate. He collects himself, and proceeds to give his facts and traditions with the greatest care. As we stop him with questions, or take time to write the facts, his memory is stimulated. With skillful questions the genealogical worker can draw out all the information, taking care to cover every point which may come up later.

In consulting books and documents we generally wish to copy in full all important references, and we will initiate the reader into a cunning stratagem of the old campaigner. We often run across a paper or paragraph which we can see at a glance is a "find." We do not read it through, but simply skim over it to make sure of the portion which we desire, and then begin the work--nay, the delightful pastime--of copying it. What a pleasure it is, absorbing the contents, line by line, as we transfer it to our archives! And there is a bit of solid wisdom in this method, for the chance of errors in copying is less when the interest is at fever heat than when the work is done in a mechanical way.