"I was always told that we had forefathers that served in the American Revolutionary War. I decided that I wanted to find out for sure and that is when I first became addicted to researching."
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Book Two Research of Family Names by Joyce Sutton Trafford Publishing
book review by P. Hooper
Full of a staggering variety of old records like index registers, personal handwritten letters, information from Pension Files, and state records, this book is a treasure trove for genealogists. Sutton presents research dating back to the 1600s on the following family names: Hoffman, Hovatter, Summers, Shahan, Shumate, Smith, Jones, Mancuso, and Sutton.
The author is very meticulous in her research; she systematically lays out the information gleaned about each family member, moving from one family to the next. Under each family name she includes documents like lists of descendants from probate records, pictures of birth certificates, and copies of obituaries. She has even obtained copies of official documents from the militia during the Revolutionary War.
Hoffman doesn't stop at official documents, however. She also includes pictures of family members along with pictures of gravestones and stories about the descendants. Such stories include the account of Hezekiah Summers who served in the Revolutionary War. According to records, he was at White Plains with George Washington and "he also served as a spy, watching the enemy soldiers along the Potomac River and as a guard at the barracks at Fredericktown, Md."
Other helpful additions include things like maps and family trees to help the reader keep all the information straight. This book would be an invaluable resource to any genealogist, but particularly to anyone with interest in these family names. It is obvious that Sutton has spent years doing research.