A definite form is recommended for an Ancestral History, to avoid the variety of different genealogy forms. Thus uniformity can be assured and the record of every person included will be arranged like the record of every other person in the history and its appearance and usefulness will be greatly enhanced. This form can be printed, which is preferable, or typed as needed. If it is typed, great care should be exercised to keep to the same arrangement throughout the work. The temptation is, when the form is being typed as used, to omit those items for which it is known there is to be no need in connection with a par­ticular individual, with the result that the whole sheet is shortened and the work is thrown out of its uniformity thus bringing the remaining items of the form in unusual places which will cause confusion. The printed form is always to be preferred because there can be no change in arrangement, and if any amount of work is to be done it will be found cheaper to pay the small additional cost of printing a form like that shown herewith than to take the time to type it and guard against any changes and omissions.

In an ancestral history each set of ancestors, comprising husband and wife, with their family and history, will form a complete unit of the work, comprising from one to as many pages as are needed for the entire story. If it is desired for any reason because of some prominence to record something of the lives of children who are not in direct line, and more room is necessary than the vital record, for which there is provision, this should be done on the parents' biographical sheet as this is their only point of contact with the history. There is no occasion to pick them up for later consideration. They are not ancestors, and while their history may be very interesting as uncles, aunts and cousins several times re­moved, as collateral relatives they have no independent place in an Ancestral History (and in genealogy forms) . The only ones having any special interest, which will be continued in a unit of their own, being those next in line of succession as ancestors. If it is desired to carry out the families of children other than direct ancestors it should be done in connection with their parents who are in direct line. There should be no provision for side lines and if forms are used in recording them the work should be done with a special color of ink to show that they are extraneous and the sheets bound in the unit of their father and mother and paged as a section of their number. This will set them apart as entirely foreign to the work in hand and no direct part of the ancestry.

In the biographical sheet there will be occasion to record more fully the history of the family than is done in a geneal­ogy. In the latter only that matter should be recorded which is of general interest to the family as a whole or to some particular subdivision of it, while in the Ancestral History anything of intimate activity should be included which is of interest to the writer. It will be noted that the individual booklet of an ancestor and his immediate family may very easily cover a dozen or more pages and become somewhat of a monograph or brochure, which will constitute one unit of the Ancestral History.

In the Genealogy the worker is preparing the history of one family for the benefit of the many descendants while in an Ancestral History he is preparing a cross section of many families for himself alone. In the former he is appealing to general family interest, while in the latter he is appealing only to his own fancy.

FAMILY

The Ancestral History has to do with a number of families with entirely different surnames. On the one of genealogy forms recommended is shown, blocked off in the upper left-hand corner, a place to record the surnames of the husband and wife constituting the family with which the unit deals. This will aid materially when going through the papers following the strain of blood of any one of the several families making up the history. It is set off as no part of the history but merely as an aid in reference finding.

In this space should be written the surnames of both hus­band and wife, that of the husband being written above that of the wife, and always in the same order that there may be no question when referring to the sheet which is the male line and which the female.

GENERATION

The block indicated Gen. on the genealogy forms may be used in either one of two ways.

To record the generation of the persons whose surnames ap­pear as the husband and wife of the family recorded on the sheet and their respective remoteness from the entrance of the surname into the history. By this method an account may be kept of the number of generation of each surname which enters the ancestry. For instance John Gooding as an ancestor of Ar­thur Hawks who is preparing the Ancestral History for him­

FAMILY	GEN.	INDEX	NO.
			PAGE
REFERENCE AUTHORITY		NAME
		LINE OF ASCESCENT:
		FATHER’S NAME
		MOTHER’S NAME
		BORN AT	ON
NOTES:		DIED AT	ON
		MARRIED AT	ON
		TO
		LINE OF ASCESCENT:
		FATHER’S NAME
		MOTHER’S NAME
		BORN AT	ON
		DIED AT	ON
		RESIDENCE:
		BURIAL PLACE
		OCCUPATION:
BIOGRAPHY:

PUBLISHED  BY  STEPHEN  DAYE  PRESS, BRATTLEBORO, VT.

CHILDREN OF	AND	(                  )
(1) NAME		NOTES:
BORN AT	ON
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON
TO
(2) NAME
BORN AT	ON
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON
TO
(3) NAME
BORN AT	ON
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON
TO
(4) NAME
BORN AT	ON
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON
TO
(5) NAME
BORN AT	ON
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON
TO
(6) NAME
BORN AT	ON
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON
TO

FORM  NO.  8-B  (ANCESTRAL  HISTORY)  PUBLISHED  BY  STEPHEN  DAYE  PRESS, BRATTLEBORO, VT.

self may be the third of that line of ancestry bearing the name of Gooding, the Gooding family having entered the Hawks ancestry in the person of Mary Gooding, the great-great-grandmother of Arthur Hawks. She was, however, only the grandmother of John Gooding, the subject of the sheet, and therefore he was in the third generation from the entrance of the name into the history and against his sur­name of Gooding should be written in this space 3, to indi­cate that fact. John Gooding's wife was Sarah Hawks, and as a Hawks she was in the sixth generation from the entrance of the name into the history, therefore, the figure 6 should be placed opposite her name in the space designated.

The objection to this use is that unless the history is being written following the order of the ancestry backward step by step through the generations it will become necessary to figure out in advance from the place of beginning what figures to use in the generation space of genealogy forms. As for instance if it is found that there is a Gooding Genealogy and that the Good­ing lines can be commenced perhaps twelve generations back in England. Unless it is planned to back up from generation to generation from the entrance of the Gooding family into the History, the worker should carefully list the names of the Gooding family to come into direct ancestry and then by counting he can determine the generation number to use against each name. It is always safer in abstracting to work back in regular order from one generation to that preceding it and not reverse the order of work. Nothing but confusion and the liability of mistakes will be the result of working lines forward rather than backward.

If the dividing line is disregarded the block may be used to record the generation of the entire family recorded on the sheet counting back from the starting person who is the first genera­tion. By this use the figure 6 would be the only one used in the illustration above as John Gooding and his wife Sarah Hawks • were the sixth generation from Arthur Gooding who is I.

There are advantages in both methods and they may be combined by placing the figures of the first method described above and below the dividing line and at their right, allow­ing the line to cross through the figure, that of the generation as described in the last method of creating the genealogy forms.

It should always be remembered in ancestral work that the counting of generations is the reverse from the method used in genealogical work. In the genealogy the first generation is the ancestor and in the ancestral history it is the person of the present time who is the pivotal point of beginning.

THE INDEXING NUMBER

In the block printed Index, on the blank should be inserted the number which is used to designate the subject of the sheet from every other ancestor who may be considered in the history. It will be found that a plan of geometrical pro­gression is the only one which can be adopted and followed without encountering conflicting numbers of genealogy forms. The subject of the Ancestral History is numbered I-o, his father 2-0, his mother 2-1, his grandfather on his father's side 3-0, and that grandfather's wife 3-1 and so on. It will be discovered that the simple rule to follow is that the number of the father of each ancestor is double the number of the child of that an­cestor. (The only exception being that 2 is not the double of o, but beginning the doubling process back at o, one genera­tion more can be kept in the lower numbers.) And that the wife is always numbered the next consecutive figure above her husband; that male ancestors are always even numbers, and female ancestors always odd numbers. For example, a grandfather is numbered 3-0, and the great-grandfather in the same family line 4-0; that the wife of the grandfather is numbered 3-1, and that her father, who would also be a great-grandfather, would be numbered 4-2, and his wife 4-3. The father of 4-3 would be 5-6 and his wife, the mother of 4-3, 5-7, the father of 5-7 would be 6-14, the mother 6-15, etc.

The number preceding the dash indicates the number of the generation reckoning the person whose ancestry is being worked out as the 1st generation. Therefore, his father and mother would be the 2nd generation, his four grandparents of the 3rd generation, etc. If the subject of the examination is numbered 1 at the left of the dash, his parents will be 2-, his grandparents 3- and so on, as far as generations are recorded.

Disregarding further consideration of the generation figure at the left of the dash, we find that to determine the number at the right of the dash is purely a matter of geometrical progression.

In indexing it will be remembered that each of genealogy forms will be headed with the name of a male ancestor, therefore, the number will be a generation number followed by a dash and an even number, thus 3-4. But on the same sheet will be considered the wife of that ancestor who is also in ancestral line of the subject of the history in compilation. Her num­ber, being the odd number next following the even number of her husband, should be inserted in parenthesis following the number of the male ancestor, thus 4-2 (4-3), 8-262 (8-263). Thus showing that the sheet is devoted to two ancestors one a male and the other his wife, a female, who are to be considered together as one family, and that the two numbers, the one following the other designate that family.

By this method of indexing large numbers will appear if many generations are recorded, but this cannot be avoided without duplication, because there are actually as many ancestors as the numbers indicate if they are all found.

Numbers are automatically skipped for any line of an­cestors not found. There is no duplication of numbering and no lack if every ancestor in every line is eventually found. In practice, however, this great number of ancestors does not exist because of crossed lines. Unless these crossed lines were encountered to reduce the actual number of different individuals, the work would soon produce more people than ever lived upon the earth. It will be found for example, that the great-grandfather of one line was Samuel Noyes, and that the great-grandmother in another line was Eunice Noyes, the sister of Samuel. Therefore the father of Samuel and Eunice would be a double ancestor and would be en­titled from that point back to two sets of numbering figures. When this happens the smaller of the index numbers should be retained and carried forward, and the larger number dropped with a notation saying that it has been merged with the smaller number and giving that number. The crossing or merging of ancestors may occur in different generations as for instance a great-grandfather and a great-great-grand­mother may be brother and sister in different lines, but this need not change the manner of procedure in dropping out one of the numbers and carrying both lines on the other number. It will be well, however, if a skeleton chart is made carrying out the dropped line and filed with that line in order that future ref­erence to generations may be made easier.

Because of this method of procedure thousands will be dropped out and never used, as not only the dropped num­bers but all their multiples are cared for in the merger. What seems like millions of ancestors will really be only a fraction of that number.

Dropped numbers must under no condition be again used. To do so would seriously handicap computation of lines. The fact that they are dropped does not render them free for use again and if the practice is attempted only confusion and failure will result. All numbers are theoretically if not actually used. This rule must be ironclad and never be disregarded.

The advantages of this numbering plan are that the num­ber preceding the dash (4-) always tells the generation as reckoned back from the person at the pivotal point of the research, and that the excessively large numbers following the dash that would result from beginning the examination by numbering the pivotal person whose ancestry is to be recorded 1 and proceeding by simple geometrical progression in the male lines and adding 1 in the female lines, may be avoided.

The plan is very easy to follow, and if adhered to will produce no complexity. It is suggested that in the higher numbers a space be left between each three figures (10-24354) if the work is being typed, or a comma inserted if the work is being done with pen and ink. It will be a help in reading the larger numbers.

Number

In the upper right hand corner of each of the genealogy forms will be found a box marked No. This space is left for any special plan of numbering the worker may wish to use, or for cross refer­ences, or for progressive numbering. Should there arise a need for a special numbering space, this will avoid placing a number at random on the sheet which would mar the appear­ance of the finished work. It may be used if the time ever comes when the examiner considers his work completed, for a consecutive paging of the book.

Page

Directly beneath the box indicated No. is another, indi­cated Page. Here should be inserted the page of the particu­lar unit. If there is much biography and the record is to be carried over from sheet to sheet the pages should be in sequence.

Name

Here should be written the name of the male ancestor of the family to which that particular form is dedicated and whose number it bears.

Lines of Ascent

In ancestral work the lines are always ascending because the beginning of the history is of recent date and ascends to a more remote time, while in genealogical work lines are always descending because the beginning is at a remote date and comes down to a more recent time.

On the form which is recommended there will be noted two spaces marked "Line of Ascent"; one for the male and one for the female ancestor who, being recorded together on the same blank as husband and wife represent one family in the ancestral history. Their union being by marriage and not by blood, they will have entirely different lines of ascent and come from families in no way related unless intermarriages have occurred.

The line of ascent of the husband should begin with his father and follow back only the male ancestors on his side bearing the family surname. The line of the wife should be recorded in exactly the same manner, beginning with her father and following only her family surname as far as it is known.

If the genealogist is backing up the line from child to father he will know only the name of the next immediate ancestor of the line and thus have only one name to enter, that of the father of the subject. He may proceed by ex­amining his source of information and after making a list, entering the ancestral line, which will be a guide for his future work on that particular family, or he may omit filling in the line until he has reached the end of his present source of in-formation and then going back fill in on the proper sheets the line as it is determined by his work.

The former of these methods is recommended as it renders unnecessary the going back over the sheets otherwise com­pleted. It also is a safe guide for picking up the line as the worker progresses, as it guards against errors and omissions. For illustration, if the Noyes line is under examination be­ginning with Sarah Luella, the mother of the genealogist, by backing up the line in the Noyes Genealogy the following list will appear:

Sarah Luella Dr. Bradley Isaac Enoch John Samuel John Nicholas Rev. William

Then her Line of Ascent will read: Dr. Bradley, Isaac, Enoch, John, Samuel, John, Nicholas, Rev. William. And the ex­aminer will know that he must find these ancestors in this order for his record. It will assist with the future work if the page is noted against the name on which the records of each of these ancestors commences in the Genealogy. The little time spent in this way looking up the order of the ancestry before the actual abstracting commences will prove well worth while.

If at some subsequent time and from some other source the line is discovered back of Rev. William it will be necessary that the additional names be inserted on the sheets which are on file covering the family.

Data of The Family

The items relating to the data of the family are so clearly indicated on the form as to need no further explanation. It is of course important to know the parentage of both husband and wife, the time and place of birth, death and their mar­riage. Attention is called, however, to the items of residence, burial place and occupation. These might all become a part of the biography but it will be found convenient to have them uniformly grouped for reference and as they are items which are needed in every examination it is well to have a place for them that they be not omitted.

It will be found especially illuminating to make a study of the occupational trends which have entered into the life of the individual around whom the history is built. Residences are necessary as indexes for original investigation to verify conflicting data as well as to secure material which has never reached print. And for the same reason it is well to know ancestral burial places. Tombstones may add materially to data sought or they may be valueless.

Reference Authority

The student of ancestry and genealogy should always keep in mind that he is a collector, an editor and a recorder. In no sense is he setting forth anything new in theory or in fact. He is simply gathering and combining data. The arrangement of his material in its combinations and relation­ships may be different from any arrangement which has pre­ceded it, but it contains nothing entirely new. It may contain items never before published but it can only contain facts as they have been lived in the history of individuals.

Therefore the compiler should fortify himself with the authority for his statements. His data may be from original public records; from printed histories and genealogies; from family Bibles; from old letters and private records, or from word of mouth secured from some member of the family. Whatever may be the source and wherever gathered, there should be clearly set down in some proper place the source of the information. Care should be exercised in this portion of the work as it is very important. Information will need to be rechecked at times and it is necessary to know where it was first secured. Contradictions will be encountered and it will be needful to follow out the sources of information in order to determine what should be the correct entry. If the in­formation is from a printed genealogy the book and page should be noted thus: Noyes Gen. vol. I, p. 264; if from a town history it should read: Hingham Hist. vol. I, p. 346, etc. And if the information is from a private source the name and address of the individual furnishing the data should be recorded, as Mrs. Mary Smith, 28 Main St., Williamstown, Mass. Cemetery records should name the particular ceme­tery as well as the town in which it is located as, North River Cem. Colrain, Mass, g.s.rec. If the cemetery is small this is sufficient and if it is large it will usually be wise to go to the cemetery office for the location of the graves sought, or in the absence of an office seek the information from the sexton of the burying ground. If the data are from a family Bible it should be noted whose family Bible it was and who has possession of it at the time of consultation, thus: Family Bible of John Blake in possession of Lucy (Blake) Jones, 32 Linden St., Baltimore, Md.

The genealogist will never regret the time spent in record­ing very carefully his references. Many hours of future time will be thereby saved and discussions referred to a source of information which will save many embarrassing situations.

Space is reserved on the left hand margin of the form for this purpose. If several sources have contributed to the knowledge set forth all should be noted and it is suggested that separate genealogy forms be used for each source of information, but if it is concluded not to do this, they should be keyed either by parenthetical numbers or by different colors of ink, matching the color used in the information with the reference authority.

Notes

It will be found advantageous to have on the form a special place to note certain events or items which demand especial attention as for instance "Emigrant ancestor," "Double ancestors" in cases where cross lines are encoun­ tered, or "See No. -----" for cross references, etc. This is provided for on the left hand margin below the space for Reference Authority. It will be found a useful space in which to enter odd bits of information which otherwise would have to be buried in the biographical section.

The form with data of the immediate family entered thereon will present the following appearance:

FAMILY	GEN.	INDEX							NO.
Catlin Baldwin	3   9	5-48 (5-49)
	2								PAGE 1
REFERENCE AUTHORITY:   Family Record in pos- session of Herbert Catlin, 23 Main St.. Springfield, Mass.				NAME		John Catlin
				LINE OF ASCENT		John, John
				FATHER’S NAME:		John, John
				MOTHER’S NAME:		Isabella Ward
				BORN AT		Wethersfield, Conn.		ON	Jan.24, 1643
NOTES:   Original settler in Deerfield. Both were killed in Indian War				DIED AT		Deerfield, Mass.		ON	1704
				MARRIED AT		Wethersfield, Conn.		ON	Sept.23, 1662
				TO		Mary Baldwin
				LINE OF ASCENT		John, John
				FATHER’S NAME:		Joseph Baldwin
				MOTHER’S NAME:		Elizabeth Smith
				BORN AT		Wethersfield, Conn.		ON	Mar.15, 1644
				DIED AT		Deerfield, Mass.		ON	Apr.2, 1704
				RESIDENCE:		Wethersfield, Conn., 1662, Branford, Conn. 1665, Newark, N.J., Deerfield, Mass.
				BURIAL PLACE		unknown
				OCCUPATION:
						He was a schoolmaster
BIOGRAPHY

Published  by  Stephen  Daye  Press, Brattleboro, Vt.

Children

While there is only one child, the next in line, who is vitally connected with an ancestral history, it is always interesting to know and to record the entire family of the ancestors under consideration. These children are uncles and aunts in some degree of nearness and should be of sufficient interest to warrant being named in the history and the vital statistics of their lives recorded.

Therefore provision is made on the reverse side of each of the genealogy forms for recording nine children with the information of birth, death and marriage. If more than nine children are found in one family it is a simple matter to head another form sheet with the same name and number, marking it as a continua­tion and paging it 2, and on the reverse continuing the list of children changing the numbers set against their names as the need demands.

In the list of children it will be found helpful if the one who is to be continued as an ancestor in line is written in red or underscored or in some other way clearly marked to distin­guish that child from others in the family who are dropped at that point.

It will be noted that provision is made for this record of children on the reverse side of the sheet and following the beginning of the record of biography. If the biography is continued on succeeding sheets the question may arise in the mind of the student as to why it is broken by the insertion in its midst of the record of children.

As a history of ancestry the children, other than the one who becomes an ancestor next in line, have no direct bearing on the history and the insertion of the names and data is a side issue. It would not be necessary to record at this point the name of the one child carried forward as all of his history is recorded on his own sheet and the numbering plan will be sufficient to place him properly without being mentioned on his parents' sheet.

The biography, therefore, will read continuously from one sheet to the next and the story of the ancestors be unbroken by this extraneous matter of children which is inserted in such a manner that, while it is included in the record, it may be omitted in reading the continuous story of ancestry.

There is provision on the right hand margin for any memoranda regarding any one or more of these children. If more space is needed in recording their doings the story should be properly woven into the biography of their parents.

The one of genealogy forms on the next page shows a family of children recorded as suggested.

Biography

It would indeed be a barren life which could be of long enough duration to place a person in an ancestral position without there having occurred many interesting events connected with the person. These events may not be of sufficient general interest to warrant their finding a place in any printed history or biography. Not every man who heard and obeyed the call to arms on the nineteenth of April 1775 could be named nor his experiences or exploits enumerated in the history of the doings of that memorable day. To the reader of history he was merely one of the unnamed soldiers of the American Revolution. But to all of his descendants his participation in the fight for liberty are infinitely more interesting than those of any other man who heard the call to arms on that notable day. To them this is a chapter in his life which demands as full a record as can be built up from every source of information.

And that is only one of the many interesting events which may very properly go to make up an ancestral history.

Provision is made at the bottom of the genealogy forms for a brief biography and if there is need of more space a plain sheet may be used and the biography continued to as great length as the compiler desires to carry it and events of sufficient worth to be recorded can be found.

Educational If the subject of the sketch has acquired learn­ing in any of the institutions of higher educa­tion or has been trained in any of the professions, a synopsis of that accomplishment should be included in the biography with notation of any honors or degrees which have been con­ferred upon him.

Military It is especially urged that all military connections be enumerated and all the details of service given as carefully as possible. This will be found of greatest value for future generations in determining their eligibility

CHILDREN OF Ebeneser	AND Esther	( Catlin ) Smead
(1) NAME Ebeneser Smead		NOTES:
BORN AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Dec.5, 1695
DIED AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Dec.5, 1695
MARRIED AT	ON
TO
(2) NAME Esther Smead		Had 11 children See Smead Gen.p.17
BORN AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Oct.18, 1696
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON Dec.4, 1716
TO Daniel Arms
(3) NAME Elizabeth Smead		Had 14 children See Smead Gen.p.18
BORN AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Dec.24, 1698
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT Greenfield, Mass.	ON Apr.6, 1720
TO Joshua Wells
(4) NAME Thankful Smead		Had 6 children See Smead Gen.p.19 He was killed by the Indians at Greenfield
BORN AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Dec.23, 1700
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Nov.6, 1720
TO Daniel Graves
(5) NAME Ruth Smead		1 child See Smead Gen.p.19
BORN AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Sept.5, 1702
DIED AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON
MARRIED AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON May.4, 1721
TO Edward Martindale of Deerfield Mass.
(6) NAME Ebenezer Smead
BORN AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Oct.12, 1704
DIED AT Greenfield, Mass.	ON Oct.11, 1783
MARRIED AT Greenfield, Mass.	ON Dec.8, 1726
TO Abigail Barnard of Salem, Mass.
(7) NAME Jonathan Smead		Resided in Greenfield, Mass Had 1 children See Smead Gen.p.20
BORN AT Deerfield, Mass.	ON Dec.23, 1700
DIED AT Greenfiels, Mass.	ON
MARRIED AT	ON Nov.6, 1720
TO Mehitable, daughter of John Nims
(8) NAME
BORN AT	ON
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON
TO
(9) NAME
BORN AT	ON
DIED AT	ON
MARRIED AT	ON
TO

to the various patriotic and hereditary societies. In this way may be found a picture of the ancestor as taken from descriptions in the war records.

For example: "Enlisted in Capt. Brownley's company, Col. Cushings Reg't age 18, stature 5 ft. 9 in." (1778). Served again in 1779, "age 20, stature 5 ft. 10 in." Here is seen the boy who grew an inch between his dates of enlistmerits. Or this other boy from Stoughton, Mass., who en­listed June 14, 1779 "age 16, height 5 ft. 2 in., in complexion, ruddy, drummer." The next year he enlisted again and is described as "5 ft. 4 in. fifer." He had grown two inches dur­ing the year and was promoted from being a drummer to a fifer. This particular boy served four years and six different enlistments and a very good picture may be built up from the varying descriptions of the boy as found in the record.

What descendant would not hail with joy the record of this boy of sixteen years who grew up fighting for American liberty? It does not stretch the imagination very much to see the picture of this ruddy complexioned boy of five feet two inches growing up amid such strenuous surroundings, first a drummer boy, then a fifer then a soldier, adding a couple of inches a year to his stature in spite of the hardships. Such entries should have a place in the biography in fullest detail.

Especially interesting is the account of an ancestor who took part in that long and bloody war with the Indians. This struggle covering many years was broken up in American history by various separately named wars, but it was ever the struggle between the white man who was trying to gain a settlement in the new country and the stealthy Indian who had little of mercy in his make-up. As an illustration of the story of these times and the people living through them the student is referred to such histories as that of George Sheldon.

Surely every descendant of Jonathan Wells of Deerfield who writes an Ancestral History and creating a genealogy forms will want to take from Mr. Sheldon's books the story of Jonathan as he has quoted it from early records as follows: "I shall give an account of the remarkable providences of God towards Jonathan Wells, Esq then aged 16 years and 2 or 3 months who was in the action (at the Falls fight, May 19th). He was with 20 men yt were obliged to fight with the enemy to recover their horses; after he mounted his horse a little while, (being then in the rear of the company) he was fird at by three Indians who were very near him; one bullet passd so near him as to brush his hair another struck his horse behind a third struck his thigh in a place which before had been broken by a cart wheel & never set but the bones latp & so grew together so yt altho one end of it had been struck and the bone shattered by ye bullet yet the bone was not wholly lossd in ye place where it had knit. Upon receiving his wound he was in dan­ger of falling from his horse, but cathcing hold of ye horses maine he recovered himself. The Indians perceiving they had wound'd him, ran up very near to him, but he kept ye Indians back by presenting his gun to ym once or twice, & got up to some of the company." The narrative goes on for two or three pages telling how he stopped to help another who was worse off than himself; how he was finally too faint to ride his horse; and to save the horse set him free while he lay down to die; of the stopping of bleeding and recovery of enough strength to walk with his gun for a cane; of his fur­ther experiences with Indians until finally he reached safety and rescue.

Jonathan Wells lived to raise a family and there can be nothing in the ancestral history of any of his descendants to excel in interest this narrative of his boyhood experiences with the Indians.

Business All business connections which have proved in any way noteworthy should be briefly recounted and the business successes enumerated. Many of the older generations were connected with the industries which have made America great, such as the early shipbuilding, the New England iron industry, etc.

Political and Religious These should be taken into account remembering that they were a vital part of the life of the earlier generations and that they were of much more consequence in early days than they are con­sidered today. Participation on the great religious move­ments like the establishment of the Unitarian Church as a split from the old Congregational faith of the earlier genera­tion; the question of slavery which divided the nation for a time, or that great question which preceded it and gave birth to the independence of the American people and the establishment of a national life separated from that of the mother country. These were movements politically and religiously which divided families and homes and the position taken by an ancestor regarding them is vital to his story and should have careful consideration by those who are recording the family history and writing it to genealogy forms.

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