Suppose the Bible is found at last and suppose the entries have been made with the usual degree of fulness. It furnishes some indisputable data, but these data are too few. The mother's parentage is not mentioned; the death dates of the children who died young are given, but the deaths of those who reached advanced age are seldom found recorded; few grand-children, if any, are named; and no information is given about those who sought new homes in distant States. This brings out the difference between such a record and a family history. The first gives only one household and that incompletely; the second gives several hundred households and shows their lines of descent for a century or two and their relationship to the other groups. The first is fragmentary, bulky, inconvenient, almost illegible, can be possessed and handed down by one individual only, and is liable to destruction in a dozen different ways; the printed genealogy is small, compact, attractive, easily read, is as complete as thorough research can make it, and, existing as it does in numerous copies widely distributed throughout the country, bids defiance to fire and other accidents. The old Bible is a precious heirloom; but it is not a genealogy or a family history. Printer's ink is our only safety. From a consideration of these facts, it is evident that a printed genealogy is far superior to the entries on the blank pages in a family Bible. Remember that a book on family history is prized more and more as the years go by; for memory is fickle and our children forget in a week facts of relationship and ancestry and migration that we would remember forever. Hence it behooves every parent to provide for his children a record of this nature so that the page may speak after the tongue has become silent; and the heads of families should not lightly let slip an opportunity of securing this rich storehouse of information for themselves and for those who are dear to them. "Those who do not treasure up the memory of their ancestors," said Edmund Burke, "do not deserve to be remembered by posterity." There are moments in the life of every thoughtful person when his mind turns back to the days of his childhood and he recalls carefully the few facts he ever knew about his grandparents with vain regret that so much has faded from his memory and that he did not avail himself of opportunities now gone forever of conversing on these topics with those who would gladly have given him full and accurate information; and traveling in thought back to more remote ancestors he has felt prompted to inquire who they were, where they lived, and whence they came. The design of this book is to answer such questions. The compilation of this genealogy has been to me a work of pride and reverence and love and duty. My aim has been to perpetuate the name and memory of our forefathers and foremothers, and I have carried my plan through at the cost of much time and labor; and so let me in closing this circular express the hope that the volume thus prepared may foster in the minds and hearts of the rising generation proper feelings of gratitude and honor toward those who have gone before. It is my purpose to publish this book immediately. My manuscripts are nearly ready for the printer. To show the necessity of promptness, it may be well to state that the printer strikes off the work in sections of sixteen pages at a time and that all subscriptions should be received before the first section goes to press. The price per copy bound in paper cover is one dollar and fifty cents; the price per copy bound in cloth is two dollars. Do you wish a copy? If so, notify me at once, but do not send any money until notified that the books are ready for distribution. Only a few copies will be printed additional to those called for by the subscription list; and the compiler reserves the right to advance the price in disposing of the extra copies. LINEAGE OF WILLIAM CLINTON ARMSTRONG. Son of Richard Turner Armstrong and Esther Ann Lundy;- Of George Lundy and Esther Willson; Of Samuel Lundy and Ann Schooley;— Of Richard Lundy, Jr., and Elizabeth Large; Of Richard Lundy and Jane Lyon;— Of Sylvester Lundy of Axminster, County of Devon, England. |