[COMMUNICATED FOR THE REGISTER.]
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 any one who shall furnish them with a link to perfect the
chain which may connect them with their supposed ancestors.
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 every thing 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.
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, wherein
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!
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 trans-atlantic
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?
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.
The frauds continually practised 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.
We can ask with confidence the attention of all travellers 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.