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Born and reared apart from all his relatives of his own name, and never having seen any one of them, except his father, till he was about grown, the writer knew but little of those who were contemporaneous with him, and almost nothing of the dead generations behind him. Actuated by this natural desire to know what sort of blood flows in his veins, and from what sources it came, and stimulated by some acci dental discoveries made in his reading, he, a short time ago, began a research on the subject, and prosecuted it in the intervals of official duty, with the care and diligence necessary to discover the facts. The conclusions at which he has arrived are recorded in this little book, a few copies of which are printed for distribution in the family. It will amuse some, instruct others, and, perhaps, a hundred years hence, should a copy survive the ravages of time, be. Of interest to our posterity. It makes no pretensions to literary merit, and the author has drawn on his imagination fornothing. His sole object has been to arrive at the truths of his family history. To this end, he has consulted only family and official records, and the most authentic historical publications, and, occasionally, unchallenged family tradi tions. This is literally true of all the generations which have lived in the past, and of the genera tion to which the writer belongs. Of the younger generations — of the children and grand-children of his cotemporaries-he does not pretend to give a complete account. They are too numer ous, and too much scattered. All he claims is, that what he has written concerning them is true as far as it goes.
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