I have prepared new versions of two PDF files containing a still incomplete draft of a book on the descendants of Rev. Leonard Metcalf of Tatterford Parish (mainly those of his son Michael, the Puritan who immigrated to Dedham MA in 1637). The main file contains the first six generations. To download it, just click on Metcalf PDF 1/2 either here or in the navigation bar to the left. The supplementary file contains the seventh generation. To download it, just click on Metcalf PDF 2/2 either here or in the navigation bar to the left.
On my Mac, it took me about five minutes and seven minutes, respectively, to download the files using my 56K modem. The "zipped" file sizes are about 1.1 MB and 1.4 MB (on the web), and contain 428 and 474 pages, respectively.
You will need a "zip" utility to "unzip" a file into its original PDF format. The best known one is available for PCs at the WinZip Download Page. For the Macintosh, go to the ZipIt Home Page.
For those of you not familiar with the PDF format, you can download Acrobat Reader from the Adobewebsite for free. Just specify which computer and operating system you use. Then you can view and print the book.
The book is unedited and unproofed, and truly a work in progress. I am poring over source material and adding, changing and deleting entries every week. So take some of it with a grain of salt.
The final published book will cover nine generations, including entries for some descendants born in the first half of the nineteenth century. Lists of any children and grandchildren of the ninth generation will extend the period covered to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Here's an outline:
For the convenience of those viewing the file, I have put the book in a single-column format (two in the index). The final, printed book (year 2002?) will likely be in two-column format (three in the index) and in smaller typefaces, to reduce the cost of publishing. Please send me any comments on the book draft, if, as and when it is convenient at: Tinseltown@compuserve.com.
In reply to queries about my previous book on the Metcalf(e)s:
Howard Hurtig Metcalfe, Metcalfe Lineages, Legend and History, SecondEdition, (Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen Publishing Company, 1994)
there are copies in Los Angeles area libraries (Public Library, LDS FHC, SCGS, SOR, IGS), but single copies (high-quality xerox, hard-bound) may be ordered directly from:
Higginson Book Company
148 Washington Street
Salem MA 01970
978-745-7170
I don't know what their current price is, but it's probably in the $100+ range. Since they copy and bind each copy as it is ordered, it will take a little while to get to you.
Following is a review of the book from The Searcher, August 1995, 182-183, publication of the Southern California Genealogical Society.
Book Reviews
by Robert G. Steele
Metcalfe Lineages (Second Edition)
929.2 FH/Metcalf
670pp.by Howard H. Metcalfe
This is a splendid account of the known ancestry of a notable English family, made more interesting and readable by a generous helping of myths, legends and history. Earliest mention of the name is William Medecalf de Dent (1120-1200), a large landholder in Northumbria, near the border of Scotland, who had inherited his property from a great-grandfather, Earl Gospatric FitzMaldred, who had struggled with William the Conqueror to get and keep it. William and his family engaged in a very profitable breeding of sheep, cattle and horses. In 1174, supporting King Henry II of England, he led his troop of horsemen at Alnwick against Scotland's King William the Lion and took him prisoner. (William the Lion was later returned to Scotland and swore fealty to the English king--an example of 12th century politics.)
Meantime, the direct Metcalfe ancestral line continues for nine generations, until we come to James Metcalfe of Nappa (1389-1472), who fought at Agincourt, the battle in which Henry V's archers decisively defeated the French mounted knights. James' son, styled Bryan Metcalfe of Beare Parke, married and had three sons, two of whom were to become persons of special interest to genealogists centuries later. They were Richard, born in 1450, and Leonard, born 10 years later.
Each of these two brothers became the progenitor of a long line of Metcalfes, all cousins, of course, and they came together by a remarkable coincidence in the state of Mississippi at the time of our Civil War. Leonard's line, designated as the "selected" lineage, came to this country when a Michael Metcalfe, a Puritan and an owner of a cloth factory in Norwich,England, emigrated in 1637 and settled in Dedham, Massachusetts. Richard's line, designated "related," first appeared on this continent when a John Metcalfe, said to have graduated from Cambridge, received a grant of land in 1716 in the colony of Virginia. The author does a fine job of showing these two parallel lineages in his chart on page 15, which also indicates which entries are "proven" and which "unproven."
In the preface, it is explained that the main body of the book consists of three parts: Selected Lineage, Contributing Lineages and Related Lineage. In Part One (Selected Lineage), numbering of generations starts with Number 1 for the author, thence proceeding backward in time to Number 67 for the earliest known Ancient Saxon. Generations in other parts are similarly numbered, with the last or most recent generation taking the lowest number. This is the opposite of the system used for most family genealogies, but is not difficult to follow once you get used to it. In the lineages themselves, all that is known about each entry is set down about that particular Metcalfe: vital statistics, family, occupation, happenings good and bad, etc. Often it is only a name. Other times it may be a mini-biography several pages long.
Part Two, titled "Contributing Lineages," contains five subsections: "The Scots," "The Irish," "The Germans,""The Slovenes," [which should be "The Slavonians,"--hhm] and "The Swedes." Each subsection contains lineages which connect in one way or another with the Metcalfe family. The Scots seem to have the most ancient line, clear back to Eochaid Munremar, King of Irish dal Riada (385-439AD) who, the author tells us, is in Generation Number 51.
In the early pages of the book, we find interesting history of the early Celtic tribes, especially the Saxons, who invaded England from the European continent even before the Romans, and after the Romans had decamped, resisted or endured invasions from the Scandinavian areas--Vikings and others. There is a list of Saxon rulers from as far back as 75 B. C. Kings and princes, they called themselves, each with a single name and sometimes a date. Most of them were probably just tribal leaders, stronger than that other fellow over the hill. No written language and therefore no history--just tradition, myth and memory, all dubious sources. In an excerpt from Hollinshed's Chronicles, written in1577 and transcribed here, we read all about King Arthur and his court, and something about Alfred the Great, but nothing about his burning the cakes in the peasant's cottage, which we remember from school days.
Well worth perusing is a 10-page section of excellent photographs, all beautifully presented and identified. Most are pictures all the way from the War Between the States up to 1994, with a picture of the author and his wife. The Appendices, beginning on page 417, include reference material, Metcalfe family records, as well as lineages of the Chapin, Wheeler-Mitchell, Bradford and a few other colonial families, ending with a bibliography and extensive index.
Privately printed by The Anundsen Publishing Co., 108 Washington St.,Decorah, Iowa 52101.