Book Reviews

Book Reviews Thomas Allen and His Descendants. A Compilation of the Eight Generations including all known direct and collateral relatives. By Joseph D. Allen. (Privately printed, Washington, D.C., 1969' vii, 58 p. Frontispiece. $7.00.) This work opens with a three-page introduction by the author In which he states his aim: the compilation of information on his progenitor, Thomas Allen of Westmeath County, Ireland, and on seven generations of his descendants, and explains his method of research. This is followed by a list of abbreviations and symbols used in the compilation, and a section called "Comments on Exhibit 'A' -- Outline of the Eight Generations." The "Comments" actually are an explanation of the author's system of genealogical reporting — yet another new one — which most be mastered before the record becomes understandable. Next comes a page of "Notes on Individual Relatives" referring to the three generations listed in tabular form on the facing page. Here Mr. Allen diverges from standard systems. The progenitor Thomas Allen (8/1, as he is designated) is considered to be the eighth generation; his two sons John Allen (7/1) and Patrick Allen (7/2) are the seventh generation, and their children, designated 6/1-13, the sixth generation. Of the latter, 6/9-12: Thomas, John, Marcella and Peter Allen, children of Patrick, are the American progenitors of this Catholic family, coming to the United States about 1850. They eventually settled in Bradford and Susquehanna Counties, Pennsylvania, in the towns of Towanda, Hallstead, Silver Lake and Great Bend. Genealogical data in the "Notes" is meagre. This is understandable in the case of those who lived and died in Ireland, or migrated to California and South America. It is less clear why Mr. Allen limited himself to so little about those who settled in Pennsylvania. Practically no birth dates are given, yet he claims to have searched census records, and few occupations are noted. In following the fifth, fourth and third generations of the family, it is necessary to turn to the "Guide for location of Families and Children in Exhibit 'A'" on pages 41-46. Here are listed in tabular form by page and generation/number (as 6/9, 6/10, etc.), the male parents followed by the page number or numbers on which their children are listed by generation/number. One then turns back to the appropriate page and hunts for the children so indicated. For some fourth, third, and all second and first generation descendants, the individuals are listed by "Zip Code Reference," found on pages 47-58. These listings give the addresses and names of parents, and repeats the names of the children, with a cross reference to the pages on which the parents' names occur under the appropnate generation. There is no index. Mr. Allen is to be commended for his interest and diligence in compiling this record of ancestors and relatives. It is to be regretted, however, that he set it up in such an unorthodox and complicated fashion. He has mcluded no documentation, beyond the statement in Ins introduction (p. that he consulted census records for 1860-18701880, visited cemetery offices, courthouses and church rectories, and carried on extensive correspondence with relatives in this country and abroad for over a period of some ten years. The work is available from Mr. Allen whose address is Apt. 402, 3600 Connecticut Ave., NW., Washington* D.C., 20008. HANNAH BENNER ROACH 123 124 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Americans front Wales. By Edward G. Hartmann, Ph. D. (Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1967. 291 p. Appendices, bibliographies, indices. $6.50.) The dust jacket informs us that Dr. Hartmann (Professor of History, Suffolk University) is the son of a Welsh-born and Welsh-speaking mother — hence his interest in the Welsh settlers in what is now the United States. We learn from his preface that the book is the fruit of fifteen years of research. Chapter I is a very objective study of the legend of the voyage of Prince Madoc to America, and of the Welsh-Indians that legend says are the descendants of his party. Chapter II gives the "old country" background — a popularized capsule of Welsh history from the Roman conquest of Britain to the seventeenth century. Strangely, despite the staunchly "pro" flavor of the account, the author fails to give credit to the dark-age Welshmen for the spread of Christianity to their Saxon neighbors, and equally strangely, the bibliographies do not Include one on Welsh history. The footnotes to this chapter are quite sparse compared with those to other chapters; they contain no reference to the standard History of Wales of Sir John Edward Lloyd (Longman's, 3rd edition, 1939), nor to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography (London, 1959). This reviewer is not in a position to assess the quality of Professor Hartmann's treat meat of colonial Welsh settlements outside of Pennsylvania. However, it is strange to see Charles Browning cited in the footnotes to the third chapter, but no mention of Thomas Allen Glenn, whose many distinguished studies of the Welsh of Pennsylvania are the major works of reference on these colonists. On page 43 of Chapter III, William Penn's grandfather is identified as a Welshman named John Tudor "called Pen-mynydd." This would certainly surprise Brigadier 0. F. G. Hogg who, in his Further Light on the Ancestry of William Penn, published by the Society of Genealogists in London in 1964 (p. 48) has shown Penn's grandfather to have been Giles Penn, a merchant of Bristol, and makes no mention of Welsh blood. The author claims many of the Welsh Quakers were gentry of considerable means, a claim that could well be disputed. They appear to have come from the same economic and social level as the rest of the Quakers: merchants, tradesmen and yeomen of quite modest means, a sprinkling of well-to-do (few of whom emigrated), and an occasional member of the minor gentry. The truth concerning the so-called Welsh barony, discussed here by the author, will probably never be known. "Many [Welsh] arrived in the Colony before bins [Penn] and others came on the ship that brought the great entrepreneur." The only two Welshmen known to have been aboard the Welcome with Penn were Dr. Thomas Wynne, and one Thomas Jones, servant of Thomas Herriot (not the Thomas Jones, gent., identified by Browning). Joshua Morris may or may not have been Welsh. If the professor can identify others, it would be a matter of great interest to The Welcome Society of Pennsylvania. Only forty are known to have arrived before Penn— those on the Lyon of Liverpool, led by Dr. Edward Jones, Thomas Wynne's son-in-law. The bulk of the Welsh arrived in the ensuing years. This reviewer has not heard before that "between 1682 and 1700 authorities agree that the Welsh were the most numerous body of immigrants arriving in Pennsylvania" (p. 44). What authorities? Does the professor mean that after the English the Welsh were the most numerous? The author discusses in footnote 3 of this Chapter III what he identifies as the three groups of Welsh names, meaning surnames, all of which would be classed as "patronymics." The first employs the father's name in the possessive form, but without the apostrophe: Evan Williams, or Thomas Er". The second form employs the word ab Book Reviews 125 or ap, meaning "son of," (the feminine form is verch for "daughter of"): Evan ap William, Thomas ap Evan. A variant form is the condensation of this with the vowel dropped out, so that Evan ab Owen becomes Evan Bowen, and Thomas ap Hugh becomes Thomas Pugh. Similarly Powell is derived from op Howell, Price, originally pronounced Preece, comes from ap Rhys, and so on. His third class of names, Lloyd, Morgan, Gwynne, Griffith, Vaughan, Meredith and Llewelyn, is actually the same as his first class, being made up entirely of given names without the possessive form. Surely the professor should know the proper use of the adjective "reverend" in connection with the name of a minister or priest. Proper useage should be, for example, "The Reverend Llewelyn Jones" (p. 106), and "The Reverend Mr. Jones" (p. 107). Finally, one seriously questions the list of implied Welsh distinguished Americans on page 196. If the author means that they have some Welsh blood, then this would certainly appear probable. But if the author means that they were largely of Welsh extraction, then this list is certainly heavily padded. Despite the criticisms voiced above, this book is useful as popularized and abbreviated background material for the Welsh migration to the United States, and within the country after arrival. It is valuable fur insight into Welsh thought and cultural institutions which are studied carefully and at length. The appendices provide useful tabulations of churches and Welsh societies. For some reason the bibliography omits works cited in the footnotes to some of the chapters. One index lists the distinguished Welshmen; the other is a general index; neither includes chapter footnotes. WALTER LEE SHEPPARD, JR. Canterbury Marriage Licenses, 1781-1809. Compiled by Arthur J. Willis. (Folkestone, Kent, 1969. 408 p. Appendix. Indices. $20.00.) This volume of marriage licenses abstracts continues those published in 1967 in Mr. Willis's Canterbury Marriage Licenses, 1711-1780, reviewed in this Magazine in Volume XXV, No. 3 (1968), 222-223. The abstracts are taken from the marriage license registers of the diocese of Canterbury, supplemented by additional information found m the affidavits and bonds which have survived. In general the abstracts give the residence, occupation and status (bachelor or widower) of the grooms, and residence and status (spinster or widow) of the brides. Relatively few ages are given in this later period, the statement "21 or over" being omitted for the sake of brevity. In the case of a minor, the parent's name is included, as well as his occupation, but the age of the minor seldom. With a few exceptions, the place of marriage is noted only when the participating parties are of different parishes. The names and occupations of bondsmen are included, when available. In paging through these licenses, there are a surprising number of mariners listed, as wall as soldiers of various regiments. But the period covered by the abstracts includes the closing years of the American Revolution, and part of the period of the war with France, so the appearance of so many of the military in the list is not so unusuaL One peace time marriage (p. 94) caught the eye of this reviewer as being somewhat out of the ordinary: "Jas Balentine gunner of HMS Boreas at Sheerness bach [clue] & Sarah Hunter of HMS Diomede of the s[ame] minor (moth[er] Sarah Burn wife of Gm B[um] Superintending Master of Second Division on HMS Diomede, fath[er] John H[unter] deed), at Queenborough. 5 May 1788." An "Index of Service Units," 126 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine broken down into "Ships of the Royal Navy," "Regiments of the Army" and "Militia," is helpful in identifying the abbreviated references in the abstracts.. As in the earlier volume of licenses, scattered through the original registers are miscellaneous records which have been gathered together by .volume and assembled in the Appendix. These records include induction mandates of vicars, licenses of parish clerks, and sequestration orders to churchwardens when benefices became vacant, usually on the death of the vicar or rector. The surnames in this Appendix are included in an "Index of Miscellaneous Surnames" which also includes all surnames in the license abstracts except those of the marrying parties. Places mentioned in the Appendix are indexed separately. A 44-page index of the surnames of the parties to marriage precedes the other indices. A list of abbreviations preceding the abstracts includes the full names of the various parishes mentioned if they have been abbreviated in the text. The volume is replete with names familiar to students of Pennsylvania genealogy and history, and should be a happy hunting ground for searchers seeking a clue to the ancestry of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century emigrants from the south HANNAH BENNER ROACH Lists of Swiss Emigrants in the Eighteenth Century to the American Colonies. Compiled and edited by Albert Bernhardt Faust and Gains Marcus Brumbaugh. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1968. 2 Volumes in One. [Reprint.] xii, 122 p., xii, 243 p. Facsimiles, indices. $15.00.) This one-volume reprint contains the earlier two-volume work of Drs. Faust and Brumbaugh: the first volume . published in 1920; the second, in 1925. The original edition was limited to 500 comes, which means that copies are now scarce. Since this is an extremely valuable work to researchers in Swiss genealogy, it is a great service to have made a reprint edition available. The Genealogical Publishing Company has done a f aithful reproduction of the original volumes. By cutting down on unnecessary margin space, it has been possible to incorporate the two-volume study into one volume of a convenient size. When this work was first published, its relation to Swiss emigrants was favorably compared to Hotten's Lists of Emigrants to America in the latter's relation to AngloSaxon emigrants. In this reviewer's opinion, however, Hotten's Lists ... are more laconic and less personalized than the Lists of Swiss Emigrants .... .Three large Swiss cantons are represented here Volume I deals primarily with cm?' gration from Zurich, 1734-1744; Volume II, with emigration from Bern, 1706-1795, and from Basel, 1734-1794. In his preface to Volume I , pr. Faust rem,nds us that, contrary to any admiration for colonlal adventurers, the Swiss cantons were so reluctant to depopulate their areas that emigration was punishable as a crime. When this was proven impractical, emigration was taxed. So alarmed were the authorities about the raging "emigration fever," they demanded that a census be taken of the emigrants from each district or parish. This task was eventually passed along by the authorities to the parish clergy who had a personal knowledge of local families. Many ministers seemed to feel that emigration was a personal reflection upon their own inadequacies> and were either defensive in titling their lists — such as, No. 9. "List Book. Reviews 127 of Those Pitiable Persons, Who Contrary to Faithful Warnings and Admonitions Obstinately Went Away from the Parish Basserstorf, with the intention of seeking their fortunes in Carolina or Pennsylvania." In other cases, the ministers were derogatory in their remarks about the individuals who had left. Despite their often-begrudging tone, these pastoral lists are of great genealogical value. Most of them contain the ages of emigrants; often, their birth or baptismal dates; their marital status; and their occupations. Their wives are generally referred to by their maiden names. In some cases, one or more parents are mentioned, as are children, by name, age or baptismal dates. Volume II is less tabulated and more editorial in tone than its predecessor. This broader interpretation includes much information of historical, as well as genealogical interest, such as the formation of the colony of New Bern in North Carolina, Bemese soldiers in colonial America, etc. It includes a chapter on "Family Names, Bern," arranged alphabetically. The tabulated lists in Volume II are taken from emigration tax lists, manumission registers, orphans court records, and other court and council records. Also included are some church archives and parish registers. It must be borne in mind by the reader that, in reprinting the two volumes in one, the pagination runs 1-122 for Volume I, followed by its index; then, pages 1-243 for Volume II, followed by a second index. Therefore, it is necessary to consult the two separate indices for the contents. As in most reprints, some pages are not reproduced as clearly as in the original, while other pages appear darker and clearer than the original. This varying density of reproduction is more noticeable in Volume II than in Volume I. Although all pages are legible, the lighter density gives the appearance of broken type and is more difficult to read. However., the context of the work is so valuable that it should be in every genea logiCal and historical library. DOROTHEE HUGHES CAROUSSO Ancestry of Margaret Ants (Fritchey) Tea/oats including the families of her great-greatgrandparents. By Dr. John A. Fritchey II. (Harrisburg, Prima., 1969. Charts, bibliography, index. [xxiil, 125, xiii p.) This soft-cover, spiral bound study, reproduced frcan typescript, presents the male line ancestry of the sixteen great-great-grandpa&nts of the author's daughter. Follow- ing the descriptive preface are thirteen charts, the first two of which give the descents of Dr. Fritchey and of his wife Dorotha _Amy Warren. Her descent from Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts is given an Chart III. The remaining te.n charts show Governor Dudley's descent from the Kings of Scotland, Ireland, England, the Saxons, the Princes of Wales, the Grand Princes of Kiev, the Carolingians, Merovingians and the Riparians. These all seem to have been taken almost completely from the 1950 edition of Frederick Lewis Weiss Ancestral Roots of Sixty New England Colonists, rather than the more nearly correct edition which was published this year by the Genealogical Publishing Company of Baltimore. Had the author had access to this, he might have added the ancestry of Edith St. Clair, which appears in it for the first time. Though no actual errors in generations are noted in the charts, there are a large number of errors in dates, some apparently mistranscribedl some doubtful, some added without authority, and some omitted which appear in the new edition. Only the years 128 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine of birth and death are given. All marriages are omitted, and since in medieval pedigrees these dates are sometimes the only "anchor," this is unfortunate. One error should be noted. In Chart XIII, generation R, Agatha, wife of Edward the Aethling, was not a daughter of St. Stephen. She was a daughter of Bruno, Archbishop of Augsburg, son of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor. (See Frank Barlow, Feudal Kingdom of England (1955), page 16 and chart, and also Ritchie, Normans in Scotland.) The numbering system used by Dr. Fritchey is a simplified one — perhaps too simplified. The earliest colonial or immigrant ancestor in each line is given the roman numeral I. The generation of his parents is lettered with a capital letter A; successive generations into the past continue the alphabet. When Z is reached, double letters are used through a second alphabet. From the colonial and American ancestor, numbered I, the generations down to the present are successively numbered II, III, IV, etc. All persons in every line bear the same number; the one in the list of children from whom the descent continues is marked with an asterisk (* ). In four of these studies, the families of Fritchey (Fritzin, Fritschi, etc.), Maurer, Scheffer, and Stucker, the ancestry is carried back into Germany, and the 'information here supplied should be noted by librarians for future reference. Unfortunately there is nothing to indicate who did the European research on these families, nor on what sources or evidences these studies are based. This reviewer is not familiar with any of the families studied and since evidences are nowhere cited, he can only guess at the quality of this work. The studies appear to fit well together, and there are certainly no obvious errors. The author has provided an autobiographical sketch (pages 34-38) m which he notes, among other things, that in 1939 he "received a Certificate of Merit from the Institute of American Genealogy. In 1964 he was on the original list of Professional Genealogists distributed by the Pennsylvania State Library, Department of Public Instruction, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." If memory serves, the above Institute was organized primarily to sell a directory, and this reviewer received a similar certificate, to his surprise. He was then asked to buy some lineage in the directory, which he declined to do. However, Dr. Fritchey appears to have done a competent job of filling out the American generations with biographical information. His tendency toward the familiar use of his subject's given name in each sketch, repeated frequently, makes tedious reading. The one-page bibliography lists the principal printed works which the author used, but includes no page numbers. Nor are volume numbers or series cited in such works as the Pennsylvania Archives, the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Egle's Notes ef Queries, and the New York Biographical and Genealogical Record, to name only a few. The thirteen-page index covers only the American ancestry, and not the charts. Otherwise it appears to be complete. Copies of the book are available from Dr. Fritchey at River House, Apt. 819, 2311 North Front St., Harrisburg, Penna., 17110. WALTER LEE SHEPPARD, JR.