This article is from April 1847
Perhaps at no time since the settlement
of our country, has the public mind been so deeply interested in
genealogical research as it is at the present. There is now
perceived among all classes, a growing disposition to make
inquiries respecting the past. The National and State archives
are compelled to surrender the treasures which for centuries
have been locked up in their musty embrace. On every side
individuals are to be found, who are ransacking the homesteads
of their fathers, to acquire materials for biography and to
settle the questions respecting their ancestors which
inquisitiveness suggests.
Some of these individuals appear to be
urged on by curiosity alone. If, through their inquiries, they
ascertain that they have descended from an old and celebrated
family, the discovered fact seems to repay them for all the toil
at the expense of which that fact may be brought to light. To
establish their claim to descent from some noted warrior of the
age of chivalry, or from some distinguished statesman of a later
date, they are willing, not only to spend laborious days and
sleepless nights, but their purses are open, and their gratitude
is freely expressed, to anyone who shall furnish them with a
link to perfect the chain which may connect them with their
supposed ancestors.
Family Pride
A family pride, either innate or
acquired, leads other inquirers to their task. It is the height
of their ambition to be able to trace their lineage to the first
settlers of our country. To have derived their existence from
the noble band who left a home rendered insupportable by
religious persecution, and crossed the stormy Atlantic in the
frail Mayflower, is to them a source of the highest pleasure. In
their efforts to establish this derivation, facts of great
importance in the local history of our country have been
elicited. These efforts have given birth to most of our town
histories, whereby materials, invaluable to our future
historiographers and biographers are preserved from the ravages
of time. These men in consequence of their researches become the
nuclei of associations for historical, genealogical, and
biographical pursuits, which, here and there, are springing into
existence. These associations are awakening the mass of the
people to a sense of the importance of the objects for which
they were formed. Many young men, naturally enthusiastic in
everything they undertake, have caught the spirit of antiquarian
research. From them we have much to hope. New modes of
investigation may be projected, new plans for arranging and
preserving historical and genealogical discoveries may be
proposed, and new deductions from these discoveries may be made.
Such are some of the advantages which may be confidently
predicted as the result of these labors in the genealogical
field.
Importance of Genealogical Records
Other
inquirers are inclined to the study of genealogy from the
argumentum ad pecuniam.
The vast amount of property which remains in abeyance in the old
world has arrested their attention. Every announcement of
estates wanting heirs stimulates anew their investigations; and
the presiding genius of the age suggests to them the possibility
of finding themselves entitled to this unclaimed property. How
important, then, that a genealogical record should exist, where
in the heirs of families should have a permanent place! How many
bitter controversies respecting heirship would thereby
be prevented! How many fraudulent distributions of property
would thus be defeated! How many of those who have been rendered
destitute by the deceptions of false claimants, would be
restored to their legal rights, if such a record had been
hitherto properly kept!
Collateral Heirs and Others
The disputes of heirs relative to the
distribution of estates have frequently occasioned difficulty in
our civil courts. In some cases property has been carried to
collateral heirs, because lineal descendants could not
sufficiently prove their derivation, and in other cases, those
who would have inherited at law as the representatives of a
deceased parent, are excluded by the intrigues of living
co-heirs. Frauds, as the reports of our courts attest, have been
perpetrated by those, who, from a similarity of name, though
unrelated, have emboldened themselves to step in and exclude
others who were legally entitled to the property, but who were
unable to furnish sufficient evidence to establish their claim.
The steamers from England often bring
news of the extinguishment of European resident heirs to estates
in that country; and much money has been expended in the
research of ancestry, by our own citizens, who have imagined
themselves to be the true heirs to this property. The families,
from which the greater number of these estates descend, are old
families; branches of which came to this country prior to the
commencement of the eighteenth century, and the transatlantic
branch of the stock has run out. When this is the case, it is of
high importance that the American descendants of these families
should be able, clearly and conclusively, to prove their
derivation. In this view, is it not a matter of surprise, that
until the present year, the publication of a journal which could
furnish information of so important a character as that which
now demands so great a share of the public attention, has been
delayed?
The Register
A Register which shall contain
"Biographical Memoirs, Sketches, and Notices of persons who came
to North America, especially to New England, before Anno Domini
1700; showing from what places in Europe they came, their
Families there, and their descendants in this country;" which
shall give "full and minute Genealogical Memoirs and Tables,
showing the lineage and descent of Families, from the earliest
dates to which they can be authentically traced down to the
present time, with their branches and connections," cannot but
be invaluable. If properly conducted, if the severest scrutiny
is exercised by the writers over the materials which come under
their notice, in the preparation of genealogical articles, the
Register will become an authority in our courts, and will save
immense amounts of money to the large number of individuals, who
are attempting to trace their descent from European families.
The policy of the law which invests, first, lineal descendants
with intestate estates, and in the absence of lineal
descendants, carries the estates to collateral heirs, in
preference to an escheat to the State, is generally admitted.
Were it not so, one great incentive to industry would be
destroyed. The desire of securing their offspring against want
is a prevalent characteristic of New England parents. Assiduity
and energy in the pursuit of wealth, which have overcome so many
obstacles in our inhospitable climate, have their origin in the
desire to advance the interests of posterity. How desirable,
then, in order to carry out these views, does the Genealogical
Register become! Such a publication affords the only permanent
depository for such records as will serve to insure the correct
distribution of the property of deceased persons; and no parent
who wishes the avails of his labors to be transmitted to his
remote descendants can fail to perceive the utility of such a
work, or can decline to furnish such information for its
columns, as will enable those who come after him to prove their
descent.
Frauds and Legal Heirs
The frauds continually practiced by
those who assume to be heirs to every unclaimed estate, have
become a matter of notoriety in English legal practice; and
though there are many estates now in abeyance in England for
want of discovered legal heirs, the bar and the bench in England
are exceedingly distrustful of the evidence forwarded by
claimants in this country. No doubt many of these claimants are
sincere in the belief that they are true heirs to those estates;
but the evidence upon which that belief is founded generally
proves to be of too unsatisfactory a character to procure a
judgment of the English tribunals in their favor; whereas, had
materials been previously collected and given to the world
through the columns of an authoritative periodical, the evidence
thus furnished would be almost irresistible to any court of law.
Documentation
We can ask with confidence the attention of all travelers to
this journal. Communications relative to the antiquities of the
countries they may visit; descriptions of monuments which exist,
with the inscriptions thereon; and such information as they may
communicate respecting themselves which may be interesting to
the families to which they belong: all these will be within the
scope of this work. It needs but an announcement of these facts,
to obtain from those interested, communications which will not
only throw light upon the pedigree of families, but will contain
many accounts interesting to genealogists, biographers, and
historians, which otherwise would be swept into oblivion; and in
this department of the periodical, the public will find amusing,
entertaining, and instructive pages. In this view of it, the New
England Historical and Genealogical Register should be
extensively patronized; and we are happy to learn that thus far
it meets with the decided approbation of the community.
Source: The New England Historical & Genealogical
Register, Published Quarterly Under The Direction Of The
New England Historic, Genealogical Society, Rev. William
Cogswell, D. D., Editor. Volume I., Boston, Samuel G.
Drake, Publisher, 1847, Coolidge & Wiley, Printers, 12
Water Street, Boston. |
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