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Pearsall Surname Project
Number of Pearsalls By Location
Maps by Family
Surname
History and Genealogy
of the Pearsall Family in England
and America:
Volume I
Front Cover
Inside Front Cover
The Motive
Thanks
Illustrations
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Appendix I
Volume II
Volume III
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CHAPTER
ONE
Section 1, Welcome – Section 2, How to
Read This Book – Section 3, The Coat of Arms – Section 4, The Motto –
Section 5, The Name.
WELCOME
This
common salutation of reception, but unusual word of introduction, is to
be taken in its broadest sense as indicating to you, dear reader, that the family of Pearsall, in all its
spellings and wherever situated, is honored by your presence and is
complimented by your attention. It also implies most strongly that you
are welcome to wander as you please through this intimate account of our
family history. While the events herein recounted are of course our
family secrets, nevertheless they are hereby opened to your study, freely
and unreservedly. So much so that we hand you the keys to the closet
containing our most intimate family skeletons.
If
you are a stranger to us, then we only ask of you the duty of a guest;
namely, that when you lay down the book you will forget whatever may
strike you unpleasantly, and only remember all the good that you have
found; not that we need any such discrimination on your part, but that we
may have for you the thought, when we bid you farewell, that you were worthy
of our entertainment.
If
you are a relative, and therefore our cousin, you are more than welcome,
as all this wealth of great deeds herein related, and this unbroken chain
of noble ancestry which is herein woven into a connected pedigree is
yours-yours alone if you so desire it. All that we ask is that you will
most selfishly take it all to yourself, get all you possibly can of it,
so that you may emulate as far as you may be able the greatness and
goodness of your ancestors, remembering that he alone is great who does
noble deeds, no matter how small those deeds may be, nor how far they may
be hidden from public observation.
It
is too bad, but nevertheless it is a fact, that notwithstanding all these
hearty words of welcome we are still strangers to each other. You will
therefore enjoy your visit all the more should you at least get
acquainted with the writer of this work, therefore he asks of you that
you will grant him the courtesy of your attention to these few more words
of personal introduction.
During
the summer vacations spent on my grandfather's farm in Pennsylvania, I
was most pleasantly entertained when he so frequently spoke of his father
Peter Pearsall, and related anecdotes of his own boyhood spent on the
farm near Saratoga Springs in New York State. My curiosity was aroused,
and all my years I had longed to see the place where he had lived when a
boy. As a natural sequence, a promise made in the year 1915 to my aunt
and sister to investigate their children's eligibility to membership in "The
Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution," revived these fond
recollections and re-kindled old desires to visit the Peter Pearsall
farm. After a short visit the next year at my former home in Pennsylvania, I hastened to New York City, and thence to Sara-
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