The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1898-11-11

Aahaz begat Jarch, and Jareh begat
! Zimri, and that the days of Tersh were
/ 20o years and he died. Except in
wealthy families the portraits of these
ancestors have not. rs a rule. come
down to us, and there is often little to
reveal their personality. One can
imagine that the genealogist of the
future will have an immense advantage
in adding to his lists the likenesses that
| have become so universal since
Dagucrrc and his Successors have made
their important inventions.
But even the most barren registry
| has a living interest to one who can
read it Alright. Imagination takes the
bare facts and invests them with its
own picturesque drapery. So these
ancestors move before us host of in
teresting human creatures from each
of whom we have derived fraction of
our own personality.
The number of the links needed to
| connect one with an era that is wholly
different from his own can be reduced
to very few. The writer recalls the
often repeated story that used to be re-
lated by an aged Sunday school super
intcndent in the country parish Of her
childhood
"Childrcn,'' he loved to say. "when
l was very young, my father took me
to see an old man, who said that. when
he was very young, his father took him
to visit Peregrine White, then in his
extreme old age. Three long lifetimes
thus cover all there is of New England
history. So, children, | want you
always to remember that you have
seen man who saw man who saw
Peregrine White
OF course, when we think of genera
tions in the same family, the links sue
ceed each other much more rapidly
than when each is made to cover a life
time But even then it takes but 4
few to connect us with what at first
seems to he very remote history. The
knowledge of these links seems greatly
to lessen the distance to the far past.
Eight generations is perhaps an aver
age number to connect the adult OF to-
day with the earliest pioneers in the
new world.
In searching out ones New England
ancestry, those coming within the
memory Of aged persons, still living,
are of course easily known. The carli-
est ones also are traced without much
difficulty. The persons bearing the
same surname were then few in number,
and these have been pretty fully tabu-
lated by their numerous descendants.
One who can trace his ancestral line
back to the middle of the eighteenth
century can usually reach the ''frst
conner" of his family name. But there
is a middle period when families had
become multiplied and scatt>r red, and
when records were carelessly kept.
In this period the most enthusiastic
ancestry seeker will often be much dis
couragcd by the difficulties of the
search.
1t is. of course, the grandmothers
who are hardest to trace; for, while
the rhetoric Of oratory has always given
them high honor, yet the family writ
inos have too often afforded them scant
notice Even in the early colonial
records which have been most carefully
preserved the matter-ofcourse way in
which these worthy grandmothcrs of
ours cxtinouished their own identity
and were absorbed into their husbands
families is, to say the least, aggravat-
ing to Il seeker for genealogical facts.
One does not need to be an ardent
champion of woman's rights to wish
that the dear Sarahs and Marys and
.Ioans whom our forefathers married
had held enough of the independent
spirit Of their modern daughters to re-
tain as middle name the distinguish
ing surnamcs Of their childhood, and
SO lessen by nearly half the labors of
the gencalogist. 1t is dsappoint-
mcnt to leave some page blank that
ought to be filled by the ancestry
record of some good 1ar-back ancestress
who, we are sure, contributed quite as
important elements to our heredity as
did the male ancestors whose pages
are SO much more easily filled.
One cannot do impossible things
We start with a line that seems to offer
hopeful possibilities Then the trail
sud lenly disappears. and one might
,cnI a lifetime of effort without max
mg any headway, unless some golden
nugget of information, such rs Il miss
ing date or a hitherto undiscovered
Christian name, be stumbled upon at
some unexpected moment while one is
turning over some entry of wills or
musty land record OF the gravestonc
roll of an ancient churchyard. Now
again the way is suddenly clear, and
without further embarrassment one
adds long chapter to his genealogical
list
1t is pleasant thing to be able to
follow the family history back into its
o.d-worll sources. But for many Of
our American ancestors the trail will