THERE has, for some years, been a growing interest in genealogical research, and the literature on the subject is already very extensive, although it is, for the most part, shut up in the archives of historical libraries, and the public are ignorant of its existence.

The perusal of elaborate and intricate tracings of genealogical branches is not a popular study, for it is impossible to create a very widespread interest in names the record and recollection of which have passed away in the current of time; but it is not so with the direct pedigrees of those whose living personality is part of our social or national life.

"Who is he?" is almost the first question put regarding an individual who happens to come into prominence or notoriety, and the absence of trustworthy information on the subject of ancestry often gives rise to very serious misapprehension. However indifferent some may affect to be regarding this question of ancestry, universal experience of human nature serves to prove that those who really have a pedigree will usually boast of it, whilst only those who lack one, and cannot perhaps even trace to their grandfather, will condemn such as frivolous and foolish. Some of America's greatest citizens have not hesitated to declare their pride of birth and pedigree. PRESIDENT GARDFIELD delighted to dwell on the traits of his ancestors and was justly proud of his long lineage; SAMUEL J. TILDEN found leisure amidst the strife of politics to devote to such investigations; and DANIEL WEBSTER often declared that the study of ancestry was an incumbent duty, and that we should look upon the present generation as connecting links between the eventful past and the unknown future. The preservation of pedigrees is therefore not the mere pastime of the idle or curious. It is the honorable employment of the student and of the historian. It has alwasys formed the basis of all true history.

In the ancient records of Assyria, Egypt, and Arabia, the pedigree of an individual was usually the thread upon which was strung the stirring events of centuries, and so important a place did the preservation of a lineage occupy amongst the Jewish people that it was established as a positive obligation upon every Levite of the temple.

Nor was this genealogical form of history peculiar to Semetic races. The earliest Greek records were also those of pedigrees. The histories of Acusilaus of Argos, and of Hecatæus of Miletus were entitled (genealogies), and the fragmentary histories of Xanthus, Charon of Lampsacus, and Hellanicus are strongly marked with the genealogical element, a form of history which is clearly sustained in the Greek Testament by the writers of the gospel narrative, who base the whole structure of Christianity upon the established pedigree of its founder.

Josephus regarded genealogical study as of the utmost importance, and in giving an account of his personal history, boasts "I have traced my pedigree as I have found it recorded in the public tablets." And it is in harmony with such feelings that the present work on AMERICAN ANCESTRY has been undertaken.

The names of only those who can trace their lineage to an ancestor who was settled in America previous to the DECLARATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE are admitted, and when it is remembered that there was only a population of less than two millions and a quarter in the whole of the United States in the year 1776 (exclusive of slaves and Indians), it will be seen that but a small proportion of the present population can claim the honor of being descended from the original American stock; and consequently in ages to come, the arrival of the Virginian colonists, the emigration of the Puritan and Dutch settlers, as well as the settlement of the Quaker and Huguenot refugees will form as memorable epochs in the history of the GREAT REPUBLIC as the Saxon and Norman conquests of GREAT BRITAIN now do in the history of that country. A few centuries hence Americans will experience as much pleasure in tracing back their ancestry to those periods as the English now do to the days of William the Conqueror.

These volumes of AMERICAN ANCESTRY will supply a most convenient method of preserving such pedigrees. And although its pages will contain, for the most part, but simple records of uneventful generations, they will preserve facts which would otherwise be lost in the history of the people.

The number of lineages in the present volume, embracing ALBANY CITY, is comparatively small. But a very large majority of the residents of Albany, who have every reason to believe that they are descended from an old American stock, cannot trace as far back as 1776, whilst not a few of those who bear the well-known names of early Dutch and English settlers have an awkward and inconvenient hiatus in their pedigrees, to which history cannot supply the necessary link.

In a few instances the lineages of prominent Albanians have been withdrawn, because the design of our work precludes the publication of auto-biographical sketches (not always of the most modest and unassuming character) of living persons. As our work is exclusively one on ancestry, we have found it wiser and safer to omit all references to the living beyond the names and marriage.

Each lineage is intended to be an impartial record, and we have been careful to expunge all such adjectives as "great," "prominent" and "pious" from the pedigrees. The historic record of public offices held, works written, and other remarks pretty clearly define the position of each line of ancestry without any laudatory statements.

We have been anxious to obtain all the information possible regarding the history of a family prior to emigration, and when a distinct pedigree is given to a noble or distinguished ancestry, we have been careful to insert it, but in those cases where the line is at present only probable we have given a qualified statement to that effect, for as the ipsissima verba of the manuscript sent to the editor have in no case been inserted, he practically makes himself responsible for the lineages.

Undoubtedly some of the very best blood of the old world flowed in the veins of the early American colonists, and the more carefully their genealogy is investigated, the more deeply interesting will be the facts elucidated, and we cannot but hope that the publication of successive volumes of AMERICAN ANCESTRY will both stimulate inquiry as to the early history of American families and also revive that most ancient method of forming history--the careful and painstaking study of genealogy and pedigree.

THE EDITOR.

[NOTE. -- A blank form for insertion in future editions of the work will be found at the end of this volume.]