far perfected the MS, that he concluded It was ready, or about ready, for the printer, when he too died, and the money was refunded and the enterprize abandoned, and the papers laid away for the moths to eat and oblivion to brood over.

In passing, perhaps I ought to say there was a donation or subscription from the South, I think one of the Harts in South Carolina, of twenty-five dollars, never refunded; probably went directly into Mr. Porter's hands. In the meantime I had published my history of New Britain, in 1867, which contained a partial history of some three hundred Harts-parents and children, and a friend of mine (an expert in pedigree) suggested, since I had at hand so much Hart history, I could, and perhaps ought, to publish a work exclusively on the Hart family. Then I had never examined the MS. of Hart and Porter above, and called on Mrs. Hart for the loan of it. My friend said to me, after an examination, if you will correspond and gather facts and dates and print it, I will collate the families and make an index. This was about four years ago, and we have been busy ever since in perfecting the work and preparing it for the press. We have insisted upon having full names and full dates in all cases, both males and females, believing mere initials or half-dates are too much of a nuisance to be borne or tolerated by Antiquaries. We have worked for nothing and kept ourselves, furnishing stationery and stamps for correspondence- except a donation of twenty dollars from Mrs. Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, of Baltimore, for which she has our thanks.

I should never have undertaken the task except for the help and encouragement of my friend and associate, Gad Andrews, Esq., of Southington, above alluded to; so the Hart family may consider themselves indebted to him for what both of us have done. But some one may say, how is this? we thought Dea. Hart had almost finished the work, and since that Mr. Porter had finished it again, how then could there be so much labor left? In reply it might be said, since Dea. Hart began a whole generation have been born, and a generation more numerous than all that went before them, for they have multiplied exceedingly (like the Israelites), and have filled the land--families numbering from six to seventeen children. When I told one man, a Hart, what I was about, he replied, "you are a fool-you can't write them down as fast as they are born." Now although this is not literally and strictly true, yet it is comparatively so. The great labor is not in writing them down, but in finding the names, dates, and location of parties. Previous to the Revolutionary war almost every family had the births, marriages, and deaths on the public records, as well as in the old family Bible; now a large majority dispense with the Bible record, and less than one-third of the people have any