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CONCERNING GENEALOGIES

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CONCERNING
GENEALOGIES

BEING SUGGESTIONS OF VALUE FOR ALL
INTERESTED IN FAMILY HISTORY

BY

FRANK ALLABEN

Director of the Genealogical and Biographical Department
of The Grafton Press; Compiler of the Biographical
Volumes of The Memorial History of New York
and of Leslie's History of Greater New York

THE GRAFTON PRESS

70 FIFTH AVENUE   NEW YORK

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Copyright 1904 by
The Grafton Press

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PREFACE

This little book puts the pleasure of tracing one's ancestry withinreach of those who have had no previous practice. It covers every phaseof the subject—the sources of information, the methods of research, thecompiling, the printing, and the publishing of a genealogy.

Strong emphasis is laid upon the importance of employing the historicalmethod, without which no genealogical work can become authoritative. Ifwe may judge from most of the family histories in print, a vigorousprotest against pernicious methods should be lodged with professionalgenealogists as well as with amateurs.

Special attention is also called to the radically different plans forgenealogical works, one tracing the many descendants of a commonancestor, the other tracing the many ancestors of a common descendant.There is a general drift toward the latter, many having discovered thefascination of exploring their direct lines of descent who would notcare to trace the collateral branches of a family "tribe." But adetailed plan of work devoted to the exhibit of the many lines of one'sown ancestry is here formulated[Pg 6] for the first time. This "GraftonPlan," as we have called it,—already carried into execution, andapproved by experience,—will appeal to thousands for whom "tribal"genealogies have little interest.

Our little volume also offers something more than a mere theory of howto proceed in genealogical work. It tells of labor-saving notebooksdevised for each kind of genealogy, and explains ways in which our owngenealogical department is placed at the service of the reader.

Frank Allaben.

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CONTENTS