Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-08-26
AMERICAN BLUE BOOK.
The HeraIdic Claims Of Thousand
American Families.

The HeraIdic Claims Of a Thousand
American Families.
Austere Republicans in the United
States have sometimes twltted their
more ambitious countrymen with an
unbecoming pride of pedigree; ana
the American Armoury and Blue
Book, which has just been issued py
John Matthews, Of Chauncery lane,
certainly suggests that an interest III
family history is by no means con-
fined to the naughty aristocracles OF
Europe.
Here we have brought together the
heraldic claims of nearly a thousand
transatlantic families, with brlef
biographies Of their heads and an IN
dication of their descent from dis
tinguished settlers of Colonial days.
Indeed, it is not in the least surprls-
ing that large and increasing num-
Der of Americans should be attached
to the study of ancestry. We are 50
accustomed to think of the United
States as a new country that we are
apt to forget that it is in fact rapidly
growing old. 1t is well over three
centuries since Virginia took its name
from Queen Elizabeth, and very
nearly as long since the Mayfiower
sailed from Plymouth. independence,
even, is century and quarter Old
this year. There are dozens OF
families in our own peerage and bar
onetage which cannot trace their ped1-
grees as far back as the landing OF
the Pilgrim Fathers; yet there are
myriads of descendants Of these
original settlers in the Atlantic
states.
If ancestry is to count for anything
at all-and it is only the ignorant or
| the envious who make light of it-a
descent, begun in such romantic
circumstances, from the pioneers OF a
great people is in itself distinction,
and that many Americans think so is
indicated by the number of societies
| established to keep alive the memory
Of events of which the posterity of
those who took part in them may well
| be proud. Thus we have the May
flower Descendants club, the Colonial
Danes of America, the Founders and
| Patriots Society, Sons Of Delaware
Descendants Of Colonial Governors
| Of Connecticut, Daughters. OF Holland
Danes (for descendants of the
ancient and honorable families OF
New York;, the Colonial Wars club,
Daughters IF the Confederacy, and
even the Military and Naval Order OF
| the Spanish war. These organiza-
/ tons are in some sense the outward
signs Of an aristocracy which has long
| existed in America. II may be diff
ficult, perhaps, to connect an Angus
tine Washington or a Myles Standish
Of the present day-we find both
names il Mr.. Matthews interesting
| book-with the railway magnates or
the pork king. But between a re
publican constitution and the aristo-
cratic idea there is no necessary
antagonism.
Rome was g. republic once, and the
commonwealth of medieval Italy
were essentially aristocratic. They
had no monarchs, yet they created an
hereditary nobility, just as their
i descendant, the comic-opera republic
Of San Marino. does still. It is the
sovereign power, and not the mere
personal sovereign, that is the foun-
tain OF honor The United States
might establish titular nobility to-
morrow if it chose, and yet retain all
the essentials of a republic. Titles,
indeed, are neither unknown nor i'll
esteemed by many Of it's citizens. In
the Lord Fairfax it has long possessed
a line Of English peers who own
allegiance to the stars and stripes;
several persons who have inherited
continental titles are to be found in
the American Armoury; while. a New
York lady is a descendant Of the i'm
mortal Cid himself.
It is inevitable that land which
is still being strengthened by extern
sive immigration should be very
mixed in blood and race, but there is
not much democratic faint in the
''first families" of Virginia, New Eng
land or New York. They still inter-
marry among themselves and form, in
some measure, a caste apart-tne
Norman blood" of the western world
Many Of them, indeed, are the de-
scendants, like the Washingtons, the
Calverts and the Standishes, Of
ancient and gentle Saxon stocks, or,
like the Van Rensselaers, the RoGse-