The following details are published not as being complete, but with
the hope that the publication of them may be as a magnet attracting
to itself, and thus supplying the wanting links which might otherwise
perish from the chain of a family history. Any information, however
slight, respecting any of the lines, whether direct or collateral,
hereby brought to light, will be welcomed by the author of this
article, or the editor of this journal.
We are still in the dark as to the family history of not a few among
the first fathers of New England. Much of this darkness might be
dispelled were all the written memorials still extant sought out,
compared, and committed to the keeping of the art preservative of all
arts. Winthrop in his Journal speaks of a letter from the Yarmouth
pilgrims to their brethren, with their names, as printed at London in
1630. The instructions to Endecott, the first Governor of Massachusetts
Bay, were "Keep a daily register in each family of what is done by all
and every person in the family."
In Young's Chronicles of Plymouth, (p. 36) and of Massachusetts Bay,
(p. 157), lists of names of emigrants are referred to, but the lists
themselves are not given.
Notwithstanding several good works upon the Huguenots have recently
appeared, much genealogical labor remains to be performed in tracing
the lineage of particular families to France, and investigating their
condition there before their emigration. I have often sought, though
without success, for the records of the Old French Church in Boston,
which stood on the site of the Universalist Church in School street.