Excerpt from The Prominent Families of the United States of America, Vol. 1
The purpose and scope of this work need little explanation. The genealogies recorded in these volumes are those of extant families of the great American Republic, whose long and distinguished connexion with their country has made them part of its history, or whose descent from some ancient European house entitles them to be included in a publication of this nature.
The armorials of families deducing their lineage from armigerous progenitors are given, but the mere possession of rightfully-borne Arms has in no case been regarded as an inevitable qualification for admission. There are many popular delusions, and not the least unfounded and absurd is that one which considers the bearing of officially authorized Arms to be the necessary condition of gentle descent; indeed, many of the oldest and most important families in England enjoy no such right.
A few words as to the sources from which I have drawn my materials. I have endeavoured throughout to obey the sound axiom of never adducing inferior testimony where better could be had. Acting on this principle, I have lost no opportunity of having frequent recourse to the parish and other local registers, to testamentary documents, to the archives of public offices, to the records of nonconformist associations, to family papers, and to various collections of original manuscripts both in this country and in America. Where, as has often been the case, the original authorities were lost or inaccessible, I have relied only on what have appeared on careful examination to be trustworthy compilations. Nevertheless, I am fully conscious that many imperfections will be apparent to the critic of these pages, but in a work of this kind, where every line contains a name and a date, it seems hardly necessary to make the usual conventional apology for unavoidable mistakes.
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