Traditions preserved in families, whether about the individual members or about family matters, can sometimes be of great importance. Our curiosity naturally loves to feed on information concerning our forebears. We take pride in knowing where they came from and what they did; most men feel respect for the past. The young can be checked in their follies and excesses when they see how much it cost their ancestors to assure the affluence their descendants enjoy. They will hesitate more than once before deciding to sell property which bears on all sides the identifiable imprint of their kith and kin. On reading the record of merit and repute they will strive to emulate it; the spirit of a virtuous father, revealed to his children, must keep them in the way of duty. Sustained by these hopes, I am resolved to set down the history of my family, and I counsel my posterity to carry it on likewise.