FOREWORD. It was a saying of the wise Kung-fut-se, crystalizing into a proverb among the Chinese, that, "Not to know one's ancestors, is to be a tree without roots, a stream without a source." If there be no filial sentiment to inspire such study, the lack of the knowledge shuts one out from that recognition of hereditary traits, which, as warning, or as stimulus, may be potent in moulding one's own character. The Latin Civil Law acknowledged lines of ascent and descent to the seventh degree. In Bockée, the American family of Boucquet, the tenth generation is reached, and here recorded. The compiler is painfully conscious of the scant story, of the many breaks in the early record, and of omissions in later generations. This book is printed with no claim to completeness, but as a preliminary study, to preserve what, in the spirit of Old Mortality, she has rescued from entire loss, and in the hope that it may be the starting point for future workers. SHEKOMEKO-IN-THE-NINE-PARTNERS, M. B. F. |