Sunday, January 22, 2012

1901 Wright family publication

In 2002 I found an old history of the Wright family that included a lot of my own Wright ancestors. The booklet was published in 1901: Genealogy of the Wright Family from 1639 to 1901 - Eight Generations; compiled and written by Rev. Henry W. Wright of Petersburgh, Mich. A.D. 1901. (Middletown, Conn.: Pelton & King, Printers and Bookbinders. 1901). The owner of the book was trying to find a living direct descendant so she could reunite the book with family. One person had already contacted the owner, claiming they were direct descendants. I felt bad and I had missed this opportunity to be reunited with the oldest publication I know of for my Wright ancestors. The FHL Catalog describes this booklet as:
Benjamin Wright (d.1677) immigrated from England to Guilford, Connecticut during or before 1645, moving about 1659 to Kenilworth (later Killingworth, now Clinton), Connecticut. Descendants and relatives lived in New England, Illinois, Michigan, California and elsewhere.
A couple months passed and to my surprise I received a package in the mail with (you guessed it) the original publication and a short note: "The person that I promised the Wright booklet to never followed up to show they were actually as closely related as they originally claimed - so I'm sending you the actual booklet instead of the photo copy." You can image how thrilled I was that day to be blessed with such a rare copy of the Wright genealogy.

I never could find the booklet on Google-Books, but did find three other locations where this booklet exists:

1. The Family History Library catalog has a copy of the book on Microfilm.
2. The FHL Catalog entry links to an online version of the booklet at the Church History Catalog site.
3. The Library of Congress has a copy of the booklet (Microfilm 72234).

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