Excerpt from The Genealogy of the Brainerd-Brainard Family in America, 1649-1908, Vol. 1: Parts 1, 2, 3; Descendants of Daniel, James and Joshua Brainerd, Sons of Daniel and Hannah (Spencer) Brainerd The Brainerd Genealogy was commenced with the intention of preparing the records in the line of the oldest son of the emigrant ancestor, Daniel Brainerd. Having been favored with records of other lines, the idea of compiling a genealogy of all the descendants was carried into effect. The early estimate for such a work was names, which number increased to upwards of re quiring much time, labor, and expense. Many of the early correspondents gave such information as they could, while others consigned the circulars or letters to the waste basket or waited a more convenient opportunity, which rarely ever came to them. If their records are not to be found in the book, the delinquents must bear the blame. The younger members of the families in the fourth generation, a few of the third, began to scatter over the known portion of our country, going first to the northern part 'of Connecticut, to New Hampshire, to Vermont, to Maine, to Massachusetts, the northeastern part of New York, and a few over the border into Canada. The forest primeval and the more re mote uncultivated lands induced many, after a few years sojourn in those places, to migrate to other unoccupied lands, thereby en during great discomfort and continued hardships. With the scarcity of paper and the infrequent correspondence with the mem bers of the parental homes (letters frequently being sent by friends, if sent by mail the postage was twenty-five cents on each letter) and the hardships inseparable from a frontier life, the children learned but little of their ancestors, and when older were more interested in their descendants than in their past history. Records, if kept, were often lost or by the burning of homes were destroyed by fire, thus rendering it difficult to get at all times complete records, and to connect such records with the ancestral line. Ruthless hands have been a great destroyer as well as fire. It has been impossible to verify all records, though I have aimed to have them accurately transcribed. Records written at different times by the same individual and from members of the same family have been found to varv Many records often appear to have been written from memory in both church and town as well as private records, which will account for some discrepancies that may occur. Sometimes only an imperfect or partial list of the names of the children of a. Family are found recorded in the town or church records. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.