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Show Genealogical Topics By C. V. Hansen Abraham Thompson Secrest, the compiler of the Spaid Genealogy, wrote an interesting preface in his book. I quote three paragraphs: "There never was a time when the writer was not interested in family history, and his natural inclination in-clination was fostered by his venerable ven-erable grandmother whose know-lege know-lege of her people was very complete. com-plete. The names of the original Spaid family and some nctes of them were made by her dictation fully thirty years ago. "Called home to Ohio from Texas Tex-as in Dece-mper, 1920, by the critical criti-cal illness of my beloved father, I was amazed at the changes that ha:, taken place in the personnel of the home community, in the fifteen fif-teen vears that I had sojourned in the southwest. I had always realized re-alized the importance of family history to the generation that should fellow, and now I saw the difficulty, if not the impossibility of gathering the history of our ancestors, ances-tors, after a few of the older members mem-bers new living should pass away; therefo e I resolved to complete the work at whatever cost. ! ."During the past two years I have devoted all my time to the 'subject. I have searched: through tin musty records of churches, probate cou ts, old family manuscripts, manu-scripts, and have looked through genealogical works almost wi:h-out wi:h-out nu.T.:ber. Not only thus, but I visited all the old graveyards where any number of Spaids were bu.ied; talked with the oldest inhabitants in-habitants here and there, written fully two thousand letters of inquiry, in-quiry, and traveled in search of information many times that number num-ber of miles." The experience of Mr. Secrest, points out the difficulty if not the impossibility of gathering the hls-tciy hls-tciy of ancestors, after some of the older members now living shall have passed away. This man was willing to spend two full years ol his time, write two thousand1 letters, let-ters, travel msny thousands of miles and spend many thousands of dollars to preserve a history of his ancestor. Write your history now! |