viii Preface. 



re-written many times, — that the town, the parish, and 

 family records often disagree concerning the same birth, 

 marriage, or death, and that in many instances, especially 

 of recent date, the facts required could not be ascertained 

 from either public or private records, — it is hoped that the 

 embarrassing conditions under which the writer has often 

 labored, together with the magnitude of the undertaking, 

 will in some measure be accepted as an excuse for whatever 

 is unsatisfactory. 



The plan adopted for the successive sketches is that 

 which is in use by the New England Historical and Gen- 

 ealogical Society. It is quite simple and easily understood 

 by those who are familiar with genealogical investigations ; 

 and to those who are not, a brief study will soon make clear 

 its seeming mysteries. The figure which precedes the head 

 of a family — if descended from the first settlers — denotes 

 the number of families bearing the surname, and refers back 

 to the family of the immediate ancestor, where the same 

 person is designated, in the list of children, by the same 

 number at the left of the Roman numeral. Following 

 this rule it is easy to trace back through the whole an- 

 cestral line to the progenitor. The Christian names and 

 figures which are given in parenthesis after the head of a 

 family denote the ancestral line and generation in consecu- 

 tive order. The names in parenthesis which follow the 

 heads of families who have been or are residents of the 

 town, but whose ancestral line is not traced, refer to the 

 parents, and include the mother's maiden name. Figures 

 at the left of the Roman numeral refer forward, where the 

 same number will precede the family history of the person 

 designated. 



