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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART I. Ante-emigration History. CHAPTER I. Introduction. HUME, in his History of England, commences his work by an allusion to the curiosity entertained bv all civilized nations of enquiring into the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, a sentiment universally felt and recognized. Such being the case, how much more curiositv and interest must every individual feel to enquire into the history of his own lineage, whose blood he inherits, and whose character has, to a greater or less extent, determined his own. Few apothegms have more of truth and beauty in them than that which lies at the foundation of all genealogical enquiry, that'' The glory of children are their parents And no teaching is of more importance as bearing upon that almost divine command of 'iknffw thyself than this very one of family history. The doctrine of heredity, as now developed and confirmed, when faithfully studied and applied to any individual person, can be most implicitly relied upon to give his true character in all its natural and fundamental characteristics and propensities. '' Like father, like son. Hence the importance of the subject. True and perfect genealogical research, in its investigation backwards to the origin of any particular family, does not cease with a knowledge of the individual ancestors of the line, but where that ends, alike interesting and important work is found in tracing the history of the race to which they belonged and with which they acted. The clew is thus followed which leads to the determination of all that is most interesting and important in one's full history and character. The different families of Paine, as existing in various parts of the country, being mainly, if not wholly, of Norman extraction and descent, as will be hereafter ...
