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Page III
PREFACE.
______________.o._____________
THE author of this Family History (HOMER ELHANAN AYLSWORTH, M. D., of
Roseville, Ill.) devoted several years of his life to its
preparation. He traveled through the various States of the Union and the Dominion of Canada in search of material, and wrote several thousands of
letters, involving a large expenditure of money, which he cheerfully
paid from his own resources, and although his family is so much
poorer by this expenditure, yet they are abundantly richer in the knowledge of
the successful result of that labor, and the glorious intellectual
monument he has erected to his memory. It was,
indeed, unfortunate that the worthy Doctor could not have lived to have realized
the full fruition of his hopes, but Providence ordered
different.
After the author's death
the members of the family residing in Rhode Island approached the editor
in regard to the publication of the work. So strong was their entreaty
that he wrote to the author's excellent wife to ascertain
how near completed the work had been left. He was informed that
all the material gathered by the Doctor in his travels and
all correspondence received had been incorporated in the
work, and, so far as known, it was now as complete as genealogies generally
are. Armed with this information he agreed to
undertake the publication which has been very materially aided
through the liberal contributions of Judge Eli Aylsworth, (page 247), his son
Hiram B. Aylsworth, (page 392), both of Providence, R. I., and Hon.
Allen B. Aylsworth (page 420), of Toronto, Canada. The author's
widow, notwithstanding the already large expenditure of money in the preparation
of the work, Page
IV
placed another liberal allowance to the publication fund. With these means, aided by the single subscriptions to the
book, its publication has been effected.
The editor
believed that if the work was published after being so nearly completed by its
original author, that it should reflect his likeness from
every page, and another had no right to rob the worthy
composer of his justly earned fame. He believed the members of the
family residing in the States and Canada would feel that
this was no more than his just due. Therefore, he has adhered (and
some might say too strictly) to the original plan.
Be that as it may, he has changed nothing but what was imperatively
needed, and what has been added from more recent correspondence has been
prepared on the author's plan. In short this work
is substantially as Dr. Aylsworth left it.
The editor has
caused to be inserted, as a fitting frontispiece to the work, a portrait of its
author. He has also placed a fine steel engraving of Judge
Aylsworth, facing his biographical sketch. He flatters himself it
will afford great pleasure to the readers of this book to view such a fine
illustration of one of the oldest living members of the
family.
A great difficulty met the author and editor, and
that was to decide on the spelling of the name. It will be
seen by reference to these pages that the compiler has taken up this question
and discussed it in a very able manner, and came to the
conclusion that the standard spelling was AYLSWORTH, and so adopted it in this work. With this explanation it will be seen why so
many families who spell it Ellsworth and in various other
ways should find it here spelled Aylsworth.
To show the
great diversity in the spelling of the name, a special index has been prepared
and inserted at the end of the general one, to illustrate
this feature.
With all the care that has been bestowed in
the preparation or this work, errors in spelling of names of
persons and places may have occurred, typographical errors, if not misplacements
and omissions. Many of these, no doubt, would have been
rectified had its author lived. Many of these errors were
beyond the power of the editor to correct, yet so far as he has been able to do
so he has spared no pains in order to accomplish it. He has
labored earnestly to have the work correct in every particular,
and to retain that confidence the family so generously placed in his keeping.
How well he has done his work is not for him but the members
of the family to determine.
Page V
The work has been printed by Herbert Whipple Greene, Esq., (page 392)
whose wife and children claim descent from Arthur of Quidnesset. The work has been set up entirely by
one compositor, Mr. Frank Kay, which is by the way a
rare thing in printing offices for so large a work. To his experienced
hand and thoughtful attention and the interest he has
taken in the work its typographical appearance is indebted.
Mr. Robert F. Belcher, the foreman of the office, has rendered the editor
many favors.
In the name of the family the editor
thanks all of the above gentlemen for their many courtesies.
To facilitate easy reference to the name of every person mentioned in these
pages an elaborate index has been prepared, to which the
editor desires to call the attention of the reader. He would
have the reader when using this index to note this particular feature
-- that a certain name is given but once, although it may
belong to several persons; for instance: There may be several
John Aylsworths. James Aylsworths, or William Aylsworths,
given in the work, yet they will all be found under the head
of John, James, and William, respectively. If the name carries more :with it,
like John C., Arthur A., etc., each will be found in its
appropriate place. The editor has found by experience to produce each John by itself does not help the reader in the least, as
he is obliged to look at each reference page to
obtain the information sought for, and that this method brings
the reference pages nearer together and thereby assists
materially.
The following index contains over nine thousand
names, including about eighteen hundred bearing
the name of Aylsworth. nearly fifteen hundred distinct surnames, about five
thousand families, and nineteen thousand references.
The editor congratulates the family upon the successful publication
of their history, at the same time thanking them for the
many courtesies extended to him during its publication, and he trusts
that they will in the future enjoy many hours of pleasure as well as profit in
the searching of its pages.
JAMES N. ARNOLD.
PROVIDENCE,
R. I., October 15, 1887.
TO READ A BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCH
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