A MEMOIR OF ELIAS LOOMLS. 759 



New York; the curious pheuoinena, of optical moviug- figures; the 

 vibratious sent out Iroiu waterfalls as the water flows over certaiu 

 dams; the orbits of the satellites of Uranus; the temperature of the 

 planets; the variations of light of the stars ;/ Argus and Algol; and 

 the comet of 1861. 



The subject of family (jenealogy has a peculiar fascination to many 

 minds. It would be an interesting study to determine practically by 

 a collection of facts what are the elements in a man's character 

 which lead him to engage in this peculiar study. Certain it is that 

 men of most diverse disposition are led into it. I should not have 

 thought it likely that Professor Looniis would have taken up the 

 subject very seriously. Others have expressed to me the same thought, 

 and he himself says that he did not think it strange that others 

 should be surprised at his devoting so much time to this subject, 

 for he was surprised at it himself. He became interested in the sub- 

 ject early in life, and that interest remained unbroken to his last 

 days. For nearly forty years before his first publication he collected 

 from time time to materials for a list of the descendants of his ancestor, 

 Joseph Loomis, who came from Braintree, England, in the year 1638, 

 and settled in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1639. In each of bis four 

 visits to Europe he extended his inquiries to his ancestor's earlier 

 history in England. The materials- thus collected were put in type 

 in 1870, He published a list containing 4,340 descendants of Joseph 

 Loomis bearing the Loomis name. He regarded it as entirely pro- 

 visional, printed to help himself in making further researches, and 

 to excite interest iu others of the name, who would thus be led to 

 give additional information, or correction of errors. 



Finding that to a limited extent only could he hope by correspondence 

 to gain the information desired, he now undertook in his vacations to 

 canvass the country by personal visits. He collected lists of names 

 from every available source, from catalogues of every description, from 

 city directories, county directories, county maps, and county tax lists, 

 and he compiled from these sources lists of all the Loomis names he 

 could find. Arranging these names by counties, he undertook to visit 

 each family personally. In this way he made a pretty thorough canvass 

 of every part of New England and New York State, of nearly every 

 part of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, of the northern part of Ohio, 

 and of some of the western cities. 



After five years of these researches he published the second edition of 

 the "Loomis Genealogy," in which were given 8,686 names of persons 

 that bore the Loomis name, descendants of Joseph Loomis iu the male 

 branches. 



Five year later, in 1880, Professor Loomis printed in two additional 

 volumes a provisional list of 19,000 descendants of Joseph Loomis in 

 the female branches. Large as was this list, he did not regard it as 

 more than a first outline of a census of the descendants of the original 



