Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 237
permitted to visit the Quaker ireetiBgs and report his observations
thereon. Like Eobinson, he was of the opinion that the best way
to deal with the Quakeis was to let tl.em alone; not peistcute,
not antagonize theno. He did not receive such harsh treatment as
Cudworth and Eobinson, but was for a lime under the cloud of the
government inf3uence.
]n consulting the records of the towns and the genealogical
dictionaries, the writer finds the genealogies of the Smiths, and es-
pecially the John ISmiths, beyond his power to unravel, and leaving
this matter here, at the first generation of the Bainstable
Smiths, declines the task of further untarglii:g the highly respectable
but somewhat confused genealogical pedigrees. He may, in
conclusion, be peimitted to say, that the Barnstable fc^miths have
ever proved themselves good citizens, and have veiy seldom been
convicted of offences againtt the laws of the country of which so
many of them are citizens. •
There seemed to be an undue tendency amorg cur ancestors,
which their descendants have not yet outgrown, to name their sons
John; no doubt out of a feeling of admiration for the first great
Smith of American history. This commendable phase of hero
worship has been the great perplexity and embarrassment of genealogists
in all future times. When we try to untangle the mystery
of the Smith family the Johns are so numerous that it is difl3cult—
yea, impossible—to dectde which Smith is involved in the investigation.