"Family history" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... supposed that you knew something of our family history, Mr. Jenison." He looked sufficiently blank. "My father and mother lead absolutely separate lives. It happened four years ago. ...
— The Rose in the Ring • George Barr McCutcheon
... I have often explained Wilde to myself by his family history. His father, was a friend or acquaintance of my father's father and among my family traditions there is an old Dublin riddle: 'Why are Sir William Wilde's nails so black?' Answer, 'Because he has scratched himself.' And there is an old story still current in Dublin of Lady ...
— Four Years • William Butler Yeats
... the lower order of animals, and it seems to me in the Bostons especially, this tendency to atavism, or throwing back to some ancestor, in many cases quite remote, is very pronounced, hence the necessity of a good general knowledge of the pedigree and family history of the dogs the breeder selects for his foundation stock. A kennel cannot be built in a day; it takes time, money, perseverance, and a strict attention to detail ...
— The Boston Terrier and All About It - A Practical, Scientific, and Up to Date Guide to the Breeding of the American Dog • Edward Axtell
... I know that you are always busy, and that time is money to you; hence, I shall be as brief as possible. In order to begin right, I must go slightly into my family history. My father owned a farm near Springfield, Massachusetts, where my mother brought up the family while he was away at sea. He was as fine a seaman as ever trod a deck, and became Captain in one of the regular lines of East India packet companies while I was a ...
— The Somnambulist and the Detective - The Murderer and the Fortune Teller • Allan Pinkerton
... splendid and truly valuable Ancient Manuscripts upon Vellum and Paper, particularly rich in History and Topography, Heraldry and County Visitations, Pedigrees and Family History, Ancient Charters, Royal Grants and other Documents of peculiar interest to the Antiquary and Historian, on sale by Thomas Thorpe, 13. Henrietta ...
— Notes & Queries 1850.02.09 • Various
... of four, Vittoria was formally betrothed to Francesco d'Avalos, heir of Pescara, one of that fated race whose family history has furnished matter for more than one stirring tale. Vittoria was born in Marino, the Roman town and duchy which still gives its title to Prince Colonna's eldest son, and she was brought up in Rome and Naples, ...
— Ave Roma Immortalis, Vol. 1 - Studies from the Chronicles of Rome • Francis Marion Crawford
... both aware of the nature of Mr. Penfold's will, and you may be sure that if those sisters of his also know of it—whether they do or not I can't say—they will bitterly resent it. I know enough of the family history to know that. It was evident by Miss Penfold's answer to me to-day that either she does not know the secret of this hiding-place—which is of course possible—or that if she does know she does not mean to say. I should imagine myself ...
— One of the 28th • G. A. Henty
... the imperturbability I am able to assume before exciting inscriptions, and by my lack of enthusiasm for the local family history, while my ill-concealed anxiety to get outside wounds ...
— Three Men in a Boa • Jerome K. Jerome
... memory produces a corresponding vividness in imagining. You see how valuable are your peculiar powers. I have no doubt that with a little data concerning some narrow section of the South, such as knowledge of family names and family history, you could join the Confederate army and play a most important role, giving to your generals information of contemplated movements as well as of movements, ...
— Who Goes There? • Blackwood Ketcham Benson
... is a Kennedy, and that his father had to fly from Ireland, two years after the siege of Limerick, owing to a participation in some plot to bring about a fresh rising in favour of King James, he is unacquainted with his family history. He has never heard from his father, and only knows that he made for France after throwing the usurper's spies off his track, and there can be little doubt that it was his intention to take service in this brigade. There have been several Kennedys in the service, and I have ...
— In the Irish Brigade - A Tale of War in Flanders and Spain • G. A. Henty
... national frame of government other than the Constitution is a matter of surprise. A writer of fiction somewhere describes two maiden sisters, one of whom had a happy and the other a melancholy disposition. In recalling the family history, one could remember all the marriages and the other all the deaths. To recall only national successes is undoubtedly most pleasant; but posterity sitting ever at the feet of History gains a more valuable lesson by including the failures ...
— The United States of America Part I • Ediwn Erle Sparks
... likewise, that there was a certain tone about the Dorrance connection she had never quite comprehended or liked—a reticence with respect to details of family history, while they were voluble upon generalities, over-fond of lauding one another's exploits, virtues, and accomplishments; referring in wonderful pride to "our beloved father," and extolling "our precious mother," who, by the ...
— At Last • Marion Harland
... pleasure. The meadows and fields of stubble and patches of ploughed land, were like pieces of a new world to the long housed child. Norton told her to whom these fields belonged, which increased the effect, and gave bits of family history, as he knew it, connected with the names. These meadows belonged to such a gentleman; his acres counted so many; were good for so much; taken capital care of. Here were the fields and woods of such-a-one's farm; ...
— Opportunities • Susan Warner
... much reduced and apparently functionless. The insectivorous and omnivorous rollers, motmots and bee-eaters have a pair of large caeca, whilst in passerine birds of similar habit the caeca are vestigial glandular nipples. It is impossible to doubt that family history dominates in this matter. Certain families tend to retain the caeca, others to lose them, and direct adaptation to diet appears only to accelerate or retard these inherited tendencies. So also in mammals, no more than a general relation between diet and caecal development can be shown ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... This aspect of family history seldom presented itself to Ursula Winwood. It did not do so this mellow and contented afternoon. Starlings mindful of a second brood chattered in the old walnut trees far away on the lawn; thrushes sang their deep-throated bugle-calls; finches twittered. A light breeze creeping up ...
— The Fortunate Youth • William J. Locke
... do the same. I intend to furbish up our family history and mythology, and then I shall assert that I attach no importance to them. And, what is more, I shall be ...
— Youth and Egolatry • Pio Baroja
... against the competition of the prairies, has betaken himself to the prairies so as to compete on the winning side. But one of the company maintained that this did not account for the whole phenomenon. "The real key to it," he said, "lies in such a family history as mine. My grandmother was the youngest of thirteen children; my mother was the eldest of five; my brother and I are ...
— America To-day, Observations and Reflections • William Archer
... with the tips of her fingers—"I was sorry it was best to mention Mary's English relations, but it was. As long as people are weighed and measured according to what they come from rather than what they are it is at times necessary to state a few facts of family history. Stock rises or falls according to reports. Some mouths have to be treated and the sort of salve one uses depends upon the sores. Not yet can a person be taken at face value. Ancestor-worship isn't all Chinese. An ill-bred gentleman-born is still ...
— Miss Gibbie Gault • Kate Langley Bosher
... 3. p. 43., and No. 7. p. 104.)—I beg to state my own mode, than which I know of none better. I have several books, viz., for History, Topography, Personal and Family History, Ecclesiastical Affairs, Heraldry, Adversaria. At the end of each volume is an alphabet, with six columns, one for each vowel; in one or other of which the word is entered according to the vowel which first appears in it, with a reference to the page. ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 26. Saturday, April 27, 1850 • Various
... plenty of strange visitors; almost every day men passing along the line came in, either to inquire the distance to the next shanty, or to ask for a meal or drink of milk. Some showed a friendly disposition, and would entertain us with their full family history. Others, with many professions of gratitude for our kindness, would eat enough to last them a week, one would suppose, and go on their way. Others, more taciturn and independent, took their refreshment in silence, and offered to ...
— A Trip to Manitoba • Mary FitzGibbon
... the afternoon when they were once more in readiness to continue their journey toward Rome. The farmer's wife, who had told them all her family history, in Italian, would have been glad to keep them over night, but Mrs. Sprague ...
— Rafael in Italy - A Geographical Reader • Etta Blaisdell McDonald
... his wife and children. At first "he refused the offer, from his love to me, his daughter, and our children." Eventually the exchange was made. Crystede settled at Bristol. His two daughters were then married. One was settled in Ireland. He concluded the family history by stating that the Irish language was as familiar to him as English, for he always spoke it to his wife, and tried to introduce it, "as much as possible," ...
— An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 • Mary Frances Cusack
... the early Tinguian settlement consisted of one or more closely related groups. Even to-day the family ties are so strong that it was found possible, in compiling the genealogical tables, to trace back the family history five or six generations. ...
— The Tinguian - Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe • Fay-Cooper Cole
... in wonder at the manner of the man, and that the probability of his daughter's having had a reserve as to her family history, should be so far out ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens
... "The Family History is more important than grubbing about in the dirt. I cannot understand why you do not leave this sort of thing to MacPherson. Why you should pay him liberal wages and then do his work for him, I cannot see. You know the ...
— A Damsel in Distress • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... she said gently, "that I will have to tell you a little bit of our family history that may not be very pleasant to hear or tell. Perhaps you don't know that when your mother married we—we—did not exactly approve of her marriage. Perhaps we were mistaken; at any rate it was wrong and foolish ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1904 • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... son's slayer, was a yearly tribute brought by himself and twelve of his elders barefoot, resembling in part such submissions as occur in the Angevin family history, the case of the Calais burgesses, and of such criminals as the Corporation of Oxford, whose penance was only finally renounced by the local patriots ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")
... After all, what had he done? A passing flirtation with an attractive girl! To be sure, he had omitted to say that he was married, but, after all it was not absolutely necessary for him to proclaim his family history ...
— Shapes that Haunt the Dusk • Various
... of this bit of family history I tried to rally from my confusion, but I knew my cheeks were burning. Looks of deepening surprise greeted the scarlet emblems of ...
— Spanish Doubloons • Camilla Kenyon
... upon me and I obtained a full history of the case. The method of indulgence in this case was the usual one of oral masturbation, in which the lad was the passive party. I was unable to obtain any definite data regarding the family history of the elder individual in this case, but understand that there was a taint of insanity in his family. He himself was a robust, fine-looking man, above middle age, who was well educated and very intelligent, as he necessarily must have been, because ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... the traits of their French-English forbears: freedom of belief, courage to follow a cause, a touch of the wanderlust, the mercurial French mind, and the steady poise of the followers of the Inward Light. A trace of bitterness had come down the years, however, with the family history; a feud-like resentment against the family of Jerome ...
— Winning the Wilderness • Margaret Hill McCarter
... the street with the bishop, she frankly related the family history and the part Mr. Meredith and the surplice had ...
— Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley • Belle K. Maniates
... John, Charles, and Thomas Frewen, and his younger daughter, Anna, were all born to him; and the reader should here be told that it is through the report of this second Charles (born 1801) that he has been looking on at these confused passages of family history. ...
— Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin • Robert Louis Stevenson
... neglected billiard-room was soon put in order, and Dick, who was a magnificent player, had a series of games with his uncle, in which, singularly enough, he was beaten, though his antagonist had been out of play for years. He evinced a profound interest in the family history, insisted on having the details of its early alliances, and professed a great pride of race, which he had inherited from his father, who, though he had allied himself with the daughter of an alien race, had yet ...
— Atlantic Monthly Vol. 6, No. 33, July, 1860 • Various
... morning. He was introduced to many of the new ones, all of whom had heard pretty much everything about Phil's past achievements before he reached their tables. The people of a circus are much like a big family, and everyone knows, or thinks he knows, the whole family history of his associates. ...
— The Circus Boys Across The Continent • Edgar B. P. Darlington
... sickly and melancholy lad, who had behind him a terrible family history of violence, and to his bastard brother, Gianevangelista, the duke accorded the most gracious welcome. Indeed, so amiable did Astorre find the duke that, although the terms of surrender afforded him perfect liberty ...
— The Life of Cesare Borgia • Raphael Sabatini
... just having tea one afternoon when Miss Emery came in with the girls from the Academy in New York. There was Frances, and the two Farley sisters, Gwen and Elise. The other girl was Cecil Fanshawe. Kit had a way of summing up family history with a few brief, terse remarks, and she had all four indexed ...
— Kit of Greenacre Farm • Izola Forrester
... Prescott, "they'll be here in half an hour, if the train's on time! If there are any points you can give me about your family history, ...
— Prescott of Saskatchewan • Harold Bindloss
... recluse in his far-away island. Why did he become a recluse? That's a subject I must consider carefully, for he was a man of money, a man of science, a man of affairs. Jones has told us he has no relatives here. He may have spoken honestly, if his father kept him in ignorance of the family history. I'm not going to jump at the conclusion that the man who calls himself Jack Andrews is a near relative of our Ajo—a cousin, perhaps—but I'll not forget that that might explain ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West • Edith Van Dyne
... countenance, gait, movements, and speech, should be noted; the state of the general health, appetite, bowels, tongue, skin, and pulse, should be inquired into; and in women the state of the menstrual function should be ascertained. The family history must be traced out, and the personal history taken with care, especially as to whether the unsoundness came on late in life or followed any physical cause. Ascertain whether it is a first attack, whether the patient has suffered from epilepsy, has ...
— Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology • W. G. Aitchison Robertson
... "we'll have the family history when we're fairly out of musket-shot range. If they find out any thing, they'll pot us off as easily as shooting for nuts ...
— Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks - Book Number Fifteen in the Jack Harkaway Series • Bracebridge Hemyng
... and besides, we wished to be off as soon as wind and tide were against us to Earraid. We went up; Bough selected a place for sketching and blocked in the sketch for Mrs. R.; and we all talked together. Bough told us his family history and a lot of strange things about old Cumberland life; among others, how he had known "John Peel" of pleasant memory in song, and of how that worthy hunted. At five, down we go to the Argyll Hotel, and wait dinner. Broth—"nice broth"—fresh herrings, and ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 23 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... of the FAMILY HISTORY OF ENGLAND has been to unite objects which in such undertakings are not always found to coincide; namely, to render the study of English History not merely instructive, but interesting and amusing. For this purpose, the greatest care has been taken to seize upon all those striking ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the - Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839) • Thomas Clarkson
... been often tried, and sometimes seductively enough for a chapter or two; but the writer still has to hark back, and to begin again from the beginning,—not always very comfortably after the abnormal brightness of his few opening pages; and the reader who is then involved in some ancient family history, or long local explanation, feels himself to have been defrauded. It is as though one were asked to eat boiled mutton after woodcocks, caviare, or maccaroni cheese. I hold that it is better to have the boiled mutton first, if boiled ...
— Is He Popenjoy? • Anthony Trollope
... passions other nature—the jungle passions—she had no others—saluted him with enthusiasm. His head and neck and bearing, stature and figure, family and family history, house and lands—she inventoried them all once more and discovered no lack. When he had rung the bell, she leaned back; in her chair and ...
— The Mettle of the Pasture • James Lane Allen
... away for a whole day, the first time in family history. And oh, what a difference it makes in this lonely little prairie home of ours! The quietness, the emptiness, the desolation of it all was something quite beyond my imagination. I know now that I could never live apart from them. Whatever ...
— The Prairie Mother • Arthur Stringer
... with her brother Henry and Joel Bradbury, returned on foot. The two former remembered O'Neil, and, although they had not witnessed his first interview with their father, they knew enough of the family history to surmise his errand. Joel ...
— Beauty and The Beast, and Tales From Home • Bayard Taylor
... "wave," over the whole world, proves that it really came from many sources, under the same conditions of life and art; showing also that a pattern is a thing that, like a flower, must grow, if the culture of the race be equal. I do not believe this. We can nearly always trace the family history of a pattern to its original motive; and in the very few cases where we are unable to do so, it is hardly necessary to cover our ignorance by stretching the fashionable theory of development over the few instances that are as ...
— Needlework As Art • Marian Alford
... works). English, Scotish, and Irish History. English Topography. English Genealogy and Family History. Liturgies and Prayer-Books. Books of Hours. Bibles. Roman Catholic books. English books printed abroad. Voyages and Travels. Irish Literature. Scotish Literature. Early illustrated books. Modern illustrated ...
— The Book-Collector • William Carew Hazlitt
... another, being superstitious, as he readily confessed, though at times professing little faith in these prognostics. Once when a clairvoyant, of whom he had never even heard, and whom he had reason to believe was ignorant of his family history, told him more about it than he knew himself, besides reading a list of names from a piece of paper which Clemens had concealed in his vest pocket he came home deeply impressed. The clairvoyant added that he would probably live to a great age and die in a foreign land—a prophecy ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine
... believe I was talking," interrupted Grace severely. "Kindly allow me the floor! Mollie is most certainly not interested in the Latham family history. Who is? Nor does she care a fig for Mr. Reginald Latham and his toy balloons. But, Mollie, I was endeavoring to tell you about the wonderful curios they have in their house. The late lamented brother, we were informed, ...
— The Automobile Girls in the Berkshires - The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail • Laura Dent Crane
... to my singular relation, she made no attempt to answer them. It seemed that what she had uttered was all she was capable of; and this, I learned afterwards, was partly true. Circumstances of her early life had given her a taste for family history, particularly that of her own, and her faculties, though otherwise impaired, still retained everything relating to ...
— Tales for Young and Old • Various
... and care does accomplish wonders in institution children, and she may bloom into something rare and beautiful after a few months' transplanting. So I yesterday wrote a glowing account of her immaculate family history to J. F. Bretland, offering ...
— Dear Enemy • Jean Webster
... closely connected, from a mental standpoint, with the successful tradesmen of our day who, having proved fortunate business men, seek to confer upon themselves such advantage as a dubious pedigree may assure. We cannot, then, accept the version of his family history that satisfied ...
— William Shakespeare - His Homes and Haunts • Samuel Levy Bensusan
... work climbing the ladder, but harder still to stand on the top," remarked the Cardinal, and he asked me to tell him something of my family history. So, as we walked through the silent streets of the slumbering city, I described sadly how the broad acres of my forefathers had dwindled to ...
— My Sword's My Fortune - A Story of Old France • Herbert Hayens
... than to apply the same construction to Marryat's not very dissimilar, but more unlucky, coup d'essai of Frank Mildmay. But it is certain that there was something, though exactly how much has never been determined, of the author's family history in the earliest part, a great deal of his experiences on board ship in the middle, and probably not a little, though less, of his fortunes in Bath and London towards the end. As a single source of interest ...
— The English Novel • George Saintsbury
... languid, deranging influences which coincide with morbidity and disease. A disturbance of the corporeal organs, which especially influence this portion of the brain, naturally tends to the development of insanity or imbecility. Morel has traced, through four generations, the family history of a youth who was admitted to the asylum at Rouen while in a state of stupidity and semi-idiocy. The following summary of his investigations illustrates the natural course of degeneracy as it extends through successive generations: immorality, depravity, alcoholic ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce
... let's play golf and cut out this family history business," protested LaHume, who was fighting angry. "It ...
— John Henry Smith - A Humorous Romance of Outdoor Life • Frederick Upham Adams
... and our family history have as much romantic interest for her as they have for you,' Charlotte went on. 'She delights in visiting our tombs and effigies and ponders over them ...
— A Laodicean • Thomas Hardy
... have said that the spot where we entered on this path, is memorable in the family history," observed John Effingham, to Eve—"for it was the precise spot where one of our predecessors lodged a shot in the ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper
... is a woman, aged thirty-eight, of American birth and ancestry. Family history is negative so far as mental disease is concerned, but there seems to have been a decadence of stock as manifested in the steady dropping of her family in the social scale. She is one of two children, there ...
— The Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Volume 10
... cried Fanny. "I suppose he would have told you all his family history if he had stayed. O dear me, he is such ...
— Five Little Peppers Abroad • Margaret Sidney
... worthy to be called a Somebody, it was not his destiny to make a stir in the world. Many of the families of my Barmouth schoolmates had the fulcrum of a moneyed grandfather. The knowledge of the girls did not extend to that period in the family history when its patriarchs started in the pursuit of Gain. Elmira Sawyer, one of Miss Black's pupils, never heard that her grandfather "Black Peter," as he was called, had made excursions, in an earlier part of his life, on the River Congo, or ...
— The Morgesons • Elizabeth Stoddard
... of the greatest interest importance and value to the Citizens of the United States of America inasmuch as it is one of the earliest records of their national History and contains much valuable information in regard to the original Settlers in the States their family history and antecedents and that therefore you earnestly desired to acquire possession of the same for and on behalf of the President and Citizens of the said United States of America AND WHEREIN you have also alleged that you are informed that We as Lord Bishop of London had fully ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford
... Jane, and is doing a useful work. Your chapter of family history is quite interesting,—I knew part of it before, in a general way; but you haven't yet told me what brought on Mrs. ...
— The Marrow of Tradition • Charles W. Chesnutt
... be it understood, is an important event in Finnish family history, a festival equivalent to our birthday rejoicings; and in the case of the father or mother, the children generally all assemble on their parent's name-day. The richer folk have a dinner or a dance, or something of that kind—the poor a feast; ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie
... into the hands of a moustached Doctor was in 1877. Everyone condemned the hirsute appendage as highly unprofessional, and when, soon after, the poor man found his way into a Lunatic Asylum, the neighbouring Doctors of the older school said that they were not surprised; that "there was a bad family history"; and that he himself had shown marked signs of eccentricity. That meant the moustache, and nothing else. Then, again, when was it first recognized as possible to take a pulse without the assistance of a gold chronometer? History is silent; but I am inclined to assign ...
— Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography • George William Erskine Russell
... most concerned with the genealogy and family history of the books, or in other words with their press relationships, the personal history attaching to them—habent sua fata libelli—is not without interest. The Zeno MS. and the Philo, printed on vellum, are the dedication copies, not merely set apart, but specially prepared for ...
— Catalogue of the William Loring Andrews Collection of Early Books in the Library of Yale University • Anonymous
... in London who know all about him," Mr. Thurwell remarked. "A man of his celebrity can scarcely conceal his family history." ...
— The New Tenant • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... Doubtless he would have felt highly insulted if his family history had not been fairly well known to every respectable person around Praeneste and to a very large and select circle at Rome. When a man could take Livius[13] for his gentile name, and Drusus for his cognomen, he had a right to hold his head high, and regard himself as one of the ...
— A Friend of Caesar - A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. • William Stearns Davis
... you mustn't do that, Mr. Pim. It was really Dinah's fault for inflicting all our family history on you. ...
— Second Plays • A. A. Milne
... slowly and conscientiously, as if every detail of her family history was important, told the story of the steamboat explosion, of the finding and adoption of Laura. Silas, that its Mr. Hawkins, and she always loved Laura, as if she had been their ...
— The Gilded Age, Complete • Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner
... the trust under which Ayton Hill had been worked for so many years was wound up, and a new tenant took the farm. It became necessary, therefore, for the shepherd to seek a new situation, and this brought about the first "flitting" in the family history. The Berwickshire hinds are somewhat notorious for their migratory habits, in which some observers have found a survival of the restlessness which characterised their ancestors in former times, and was alike the result and the cause of the old ...
— Principal Cairns • John Cairns
... centuries ago," she said, "I fancy that if our family history is true, the affair would have been ...
— The Master Mummer • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... (like most Icelandic sagas) a family chronicle, purporting to relate all matters of interest pertaining to the race of Eric the Red. The Wineland voyages are treated as remarkable incidents in this chronicle, but they hardly occupy any more space than properly belongs to them in a family history which is concerned with a great many other things besides. The importance of this as corroborating the authenticity of the narrative, ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various
... said it didn't mean what I thought in the least. But she wouldn't explain what it did mean. After the lecture, the purple velvet lady held things—jewelry chiefly—that people in the audience sent up to her, and described their owners, and where they'd got the things from. There was quite a lot of family history, and people's characteristics and virtues and failings, and very, very private things made public, but no ...
— Antony Gray,—Gardener • Leslie Moore
... whole family record, extending back through many generations, is of tremendous value in helping him to resist temptations. On the other hand, the fact that the individual has behind him and surrounding him proud family history and connections serves as a stimulus to make him overcome obstacles, when striving for success. All this should be taken into consideration, to say nothing of the physical, mental and moral training which individuals of the white race receive in their homes. ...
— Twentieth Century Negro Literature - Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating - to the American Negro • Various
... of society; exactly what I like," said Evergreen, who thereupon, taking the hint, launched forth on several little bits of his own family history, with which he was fond of entertaining ...
— Fred Markham in Russia - The Boy Travellers in the Land of the Czar • W. H. G. Kingston
... happen. Neither is it within my memory's scope to enlarge on the Countess Dowager of Lumberdale and her seven charming daughters, in elegant morning-dresses, appearing at the poll, where they shook hands with everybody, and shewed a singular acquaintance with family history; nor to relate how Lord Littlemore, Stopford's brother-in-law, and the proudest peer in England, made calls on small shopkeepers and farmers, perhaps to shew what rank could do on important occasions. No manoeuvre was left untried by the rival factions, ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 453 - Volume 18, New Series, September 4, 1852 • Various
... pictures representing events in public or family history, were embroidered in crewels on sampler linen. The largest and funniest one I have ever seen was the boarding-school climax of glory of Miss Hannah Otis, sister of the patriot James Otis. It is a view of the Hancock House, Boston ...
— Home Life in Colonial Days • Alice Morse Earle
... told but little of the family history of his friend, only knowing that his wife was dead and that a daughter lived upon ...
— The Trail of a Sourdough - Life in Alaska • May Kellogg Sullivan
... it was, might have something to do with the cunning and ruthlessness of the man. Strangely enough, its existence was unknown to any one but himself and me. It was when he asked me to apply my taste for genealogical work to his own obscure family history that I made the discovery that he had in him a share of the blood of the Iroquois chief Montour and his French wife, a terrible woman who ruled the savage politics of the tribes of the Wilderness two hundred years ago. The Mandersons were ...
— Trent's Last Case - The Woman in Black • E.C. (Edmund Clerihew) Bentley
... more of the Hathaway family history than Mary Louise did, through the letter she had found and read, was often perplexed how to console her friend and still regard honesty and truth. Any deception, even when practiced through the best of motives, was abhorrent to her nature, so she avoided ...
— Mary Louise • Edith van Dyne (one of L. Frank Baum's pen names)
... grown confidential and talked about his personal history—which was usually bad form in California, where present fortune counted for everything and family history was regarded as ancient history. He told her how in boyhood he came to California from Virginia with his parents. That was back in the fifties, when respectable women were so rare in the gold fields that their arrival was hailed by the rough miners with ...
— Forty-one Thieves - A Tale of California • Angelo Hall
... as to early family history[19] may be useful here. John Dickens, who is represented as "a fine portly man," was a Navy pay-clerk, and Elizabeth his wife (nee Barrow), who is described as "a dear good mother and a fine woman," ...
— A Week's Tramp in Dickens-Land • William R. Hughes
... somewhat sarcastic reply. "I do not for a moment deny that such things are valuable, but they count for very little in my estimation of a true man. He must prove his worth in the battle of life, and show to the world that he is something apart from how much money his father may have or his family history. Now what have you done that I should ...
— Under Sealed Orders • H. A. Cody
... security be taken as a proof of kinship. On account of their nomadic habits, due to their continual movement from place to place during two hundred years, he found it difficult to make out a complete family history. He was not, nor have his relatives and later investigators been, able to find material for the study of the Laniers in their original home. At one time he expressed a wish that President Hayes would appoint him consul to southern France. Certainly ...
— Sidney Lanier • Edwin Mims
... very handsome—he was a beautiful boy, with light golden hair and the head of an Antinous. He smiled at Jurgis confidingly, and then started talking again, with his blissful insouciance. This time he talked for ten minutes at a stretch, and in the course of the speech he told Jurgis all of his family history. His big brother Charlie was in love with the guileless maiden who played the part of "Little Bright-Eyes" in "The Kaliph of Kamskatka." He had been on the verge of marrying her once, only "the guv'ner" had sworn to disinherit him, and had presented him with a sum that would stagger the imagination, ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair
... Mr. Dunbar met and shook hands with him, accompanying him almost to the stand. At sight of his white head, and flowing silvery beard, Beryl's heart almost ceased its pulsation. If, during her last illness her mother had acquainted him with their family history, then indeed all was lost. It was as impossible to reach him and implore his silence, as though the ocean rocked between them; and how would he interpret the pleading gaze she fixed upon his face? The imminence of the danger, vanquished ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson
... commission again. Never say die, Joe! Where there's a will there's a lawsuit or a heartache—particularly if the estate makes it worth while. Now then, Joe, you must realize that it's the fashion nowadays, when a fellow has to consult a specialist, to give his personal and family history for three generations back before receiving treatment. So if I am to diagnose Joey's case I'll have to have a history of Joey. Now then! He graduated from college at the age ...
— Cappy Ricks Retires • Peter B. Kyne
... views of life thrown out, and where to show a racy enjoyment of the little humoristic bits of description which the other was rather proud of his skill in deploying; and as Atlee always appeared so conversant with the family history of the people they were discussing, Walpole spoke with ...
— Lord Kilgobbin • Charles Lever
... to Henchard that the transaction of his early married life at Weydon Fair was unrecorded in the family history. It was more than he could have expected. His wife had behaved kindly to him in return for his unkindness, and had never proclaimed her wrong to her ...
— The Mayor of Casterbridge • Thomas Hardy
... about him, Helen Burton—his whole family history, and he is only obeying orders ...
— Officer 666 • Barton W. Currie
... blonder, heavier-featured, she yet had glances and movements that disturbingly suggested what was freshest and most engaging in the girl; and as she stretched her bare plump arm across the bed she seemed to be pulling back the veil from dingy distances of family history. ...
— The Reef • Edith Wharton
... nor of the particular members of the family that returned; but their exile does not appear to have been of long duration, as there are entries in the register of Gidding church, and inscriptions on brasses or tombstones, which record events in the family history of the Ferrars and Collets (such as baptisms and burials) as early as the year 1650—and at frequent dates afterwards. The Gidding estate, which had originally been bought by old Mrs. Ferrar, passed to her eldest son John, which is proved by his being ...
— Little Gidding and its inmates in the Time of King Charles I. - with an account of the Harmonies • J. E. Acland
... the son of the magnate, lately returned home from college. Barclay Fetters was handsome, well-dressed and well-mannered. He had started at one college, and had already changed to two others. Stories of his dissipated habits and reckless extravagance had been bruited about. Graciella knew his family history, and had imbibed the old-fashioned notions of her grandmother's household, so that her acknowledgment of the introduction was somewhat cold, not to say distant. But as she felt the charm of his manner, and saw that the other girls were vieing with one another for his ...
— The Colonel's Dream • Charles W. Chesnutt
... air of expectation. They were nearly all of them people who had been neighbours of the Caresfoot family for years —in many instances for generations—and as intimate with its members as the high-stomached stiffness of English country-life will allow. They therefore were well acquainted with the family history and peculiarities; but it was clear from their faces that their knowledge was of no help to them now, and that they were totally in the dark as to why they were all gathered together in ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard
... his partner is at home, but I do not communicate upon personal business with his partner; and by and by there will be, I suppose, a third partner. I might as well deposit my family history in the hands of a club. His partner is always visible. It is my belief that Camminy has taken a partner that he may act the independent gentleman at his leisure. I, meantime, must continue to be the mark for these letters. I shall expect soon to hear myself abused as the positive ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... did much to educate him. In the Rochdale factory there was no marked separation as at Manchester between rich and poor. Master and men lived side by side, knew one another's family history and fortunes, and fraternized over their joys and sorrows. Even in those days of backward education 'Old Jacob' made himself responsible for the schooling of his workmen's children; his son, too, made personal ...
— Victorian Worthies - Sixteen Biographies • George Henry Blore
... of relatives, almost serving as a family history, there are entries of high interest to the general historian and the antiquary. The costs of every article of use and virtue are set down in full, and a few of the items (which I find in my Common-place Book) will serve as a specimen ...
— Notes & Queries 1850.01.12 • Various
... noting the fact, felt a rising of irritation, and mentally dubbed him ungracious and unreasonable, as Esmeralda had done before her. Both failed to appreciate the fact that sudden spasms of energy were by no means an innovation in the family history, and what the tired man was really longing for was that ordered peace and tranquillity which form the English idea of home. He made no further objections, however, and Joan threw herself whole-heartedly into her preparations, determined on a success which must ...
— The Love Affairs of Pixie • Mrs George de Horne Vaizey
... Manor and its Owners. A family history. By William Austen Leigh and Montagu George Knight. London: Smith, Elder ...
— Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters - A Family Record • William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh
... had not made Mary Ware any the less talkative. At fourteen she was as much of a chatterbox as ever, but so diverting, with her fund of unexpected information and family history and her cheerful outlook on life, that Mrs. Lee often sent for her to amuse some invalid boarder, to the mutual pleasure of the small ...
— The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor • Annie Fellows Johnston
... Murdoch the next morning to an anxious Doggie in pink pyjamas; "but that's merely a matter of unused muscles. Physical training will set it right in no time. Otherwise, my dear Trevor, you're in splendid health. I was afraid your family history might be against you—the child of elderly parents, and so forth. But nothing of the sort. Not only are you a first-class life for an insurance company, but you're a first-class life for the Army—and that's saying a good deal. There's not a flaw in ...
— The Rough Road • William John Locke
... hear all Barty had to say of his gay life among the beauty, rank, and fashion of Blankenberghe. She was very civil to the handsome Irish Madame de Cleves, nee O'Brien, and listened politely to the family history of the O'Briens and that of the de Cleveses too: and learnt, without indecent surprise, or any emotion of any kind whatever, what she had never heard before—namely, that in the early part of the twelfth century a Rohan de Whitby had married an O'Brien of Ballywrotte; ...
— The Martian • George Du Maurier
... of Boston, U.S., was very much interested in looking up family history, and spent a good deal of time in gathering information about the Chapman family. The following letters and extracts which were received by him some years before he died may add interest to ...
— The Chignecto Isthmus And Its First Settlers • Howard Trueman
... to fall back on revelations and disclosures. Here again I find the American atmosphere singularly uncongenial. I have offered to reveal to the Secretary of State the entire family history of Ferdinand of Bulgaria for fifty dollars. He says it is not worth it. I have offered to the British Embassy the inside story of the Abdication of Constantine for five dollars. They say they know it, and knew it before it happened. I have offered, for little more than ...
— Frenzied Fiction • Stephen Leacock
... history (Jurassic or Cretaceous), they became like Fig. 68. This order of change is still retained in the embryonic development of the last introduced and most specialized order of existing fishes. The family history is repeated in ...
— Darwin, and After Darwin (Vol. 1 and 3, of 3) • George John Romanes
... character. Not all the roots of her talent were imbedded in corruption. She who wrote Lelia wrote also Andre, she who wrote Lucrezia Floriani wrote also La petite Fadette. And in remembering her faults and shortcomings justice demands that we should not forget her family history, with its dissensions and examples of libertinism, and her education without system, continuity, ...
— Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician - Volume 1-2, Complete • Frederick Niecks
... "Now, if you're satisfied with my family history, suppose you tell me what the devil you're ...
— The Riverman • Stewart Edward White
... and especially attentive to the old lady, who purred with pleasure, and beamed and expanded into familiarity under the encouragement of the woman of the world. In less than ten minutes Mrs. Glow had learned the chief points in the family history, the state of health and habits of pa (Mr. Benson), and all about Cyrusville and its wonderful growth. In all this Mrs. Glow manifested a deep interest, and learned, by observing out of the corner of her ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner
... "I see you desire to hear the real truth of my family history, of which you have yet learned only the romantic legend.—The sprinkling of water was necessarily had recourse to, on my ancestress's first swoon. As for the opal, I have heard that it did indeed grow pale, but only because it is said to be the nature ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 13, - Issue 373, Supplementary Number • Various
... both sides one can easily understand the bent of Robert Louis Stevenson's mind towards old things, the curious traditions of Scotch family history and the lone ...
— Robert Louis Stevenson • Margaret Moyes Black
... patience of the most long- suffering, by repeating monotonous narratives of exploring parties and hunting expeditions, wearisome descriptions of awkward inventions and clumsy machines, with an endless record of discoveries, more fit for the pages of an encyclopedia than a book of family history. ...
— Journeys Through Bookland V3 • Charles H. Sylvester
... between herself and her mother was more intimate than is usually the case, for Claire was an only child, and Mrs Gifford a widow only eighteen years older than herself. Briefly stated, the family history was as follows—Eleanor Guyther had been the only child of stern, old-world parents, and at seventeen had run away from the house which had been more like a prison than a home, to marry a handsome young artist who had been painting in the neighbourhood during the summer ...
— The Independence of Claire • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... young gentleman who has just gone to bed is to be the hero of the following pages, we had best begin our account of him with his family history, which luckily is not ...
— The Newcomes • William Makepeace Thackeray
... crushing Hay-Maker on her Family History she countered with a short-arm Jolt on his ...
— Knocking the Neighbors • George Ade
... crimson, here or there, across the dark, roomy spaces. The heart, the heart of youth at least, sank, as one entered, stepping warily out of the sunshine over the sepulchral stones which formed the entire pavement of the church, a great blazonry of family history from age to age for indefatigable eyes. An abundance of almost life-sized sculpture clung to the pillars, lurked in the angles, seemed, with those symbolical gestures, and mystic faces [6] ready to speak their parts, to be almost in motion ...
— Gaston de Latour: an unfinished romance • Walter Horatio Pater
... old family portraits—paintings of ancestors who have rendered themselves famous in one way or another. Such paintings have their unwritten stories, repeated by word of mouth from one generation to another, thereby preserving the family history which is looked back upon with pride by ...
— Short Sketches from Oldest America • John Driggs
... have been established. Consequently, tuberculosis in an individual, the blood of whose ancestors has been accustomed or habituated to the poison of the disease, will run a milder course, be more modified in its type, and will respond to treatment easier than in an individual whose family history is free from the ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Vol. 3 (of 4) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • W. Grant Hague
... know? Don't you know anything about your family history?" Dave shook his head. "Well, ...
— Heart of the Sunset • Rex Beach
... answered, with a sigh. "There's not much the matter with me. I'm tired, I suppose, that's all. The eternal chatter of those confounded women bores me to death. They can't tell their symptoms without going into all the details of family history and domestic infelicity," he snapped. "They think me doctor, lawyer, and parson rolled ...
— The Seven Secrets • William Le Queux
... twenty-second was a negro. The twenty-third—! He was a tall, youngish man, narrow-shouldered, rather commonplace-looking, with beautiful blue eyes, and a timid, winning, deprecatory manner. I told him I was suffering from insomnia. After raking over my grandfathers again and bringing the family history down by stages to the very moment I was shown into his office he said he should have to ask me to undergo a thorough physical—! But I was tired of being slapped and punched and breathed on and prodded, and was bold enough to refuse point-blank. I'd rather have the insomnia! ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VI. (of X.) • Various
... month before the trial, or whenever it may be that the jury has been drawn, every member upon the panel has been subjected to an unseen scrutiny. The prosecutor, through his own or through hired sleuths, has examined into the family history, the business standing and methods, the financial responsibility, the political and social affiliations, and the personal habits and "past performances" of each and every talesman. When at the beginning of the trial they, one by one, take the witness-chair (on what is called ...
— Courts and Criminals • Arthur Train
... fact he was acquainted with in regard to Frank's career, and his own family history, in the course of which he revealed the object of his visit to Mr Tippet. When he had finished, Frederick Auberly shook ...
— Fighting the Flames • R.M. Ballantyne
... the clumps of chestnuts outside, the silence, just varied by the soughing wind. There is always the deepest eloquence of sermon or poem in any of these ancient graveyards of which Long Island has so many; so what must this one have been to me? My whole family history, with its succession of links, from the first settlement down to date, told here—three centuries concentrate on this ...
— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman
... "hadn't you better take a seat, if you want to tell me all your family history? I'm sure it's very interesting, but it's rather late in the day to begin now. Where have you come from, not originally, ...
— Tom, Dick and Harry • Talbot Baines Reed
... so rude that she could not yet recover from it, stunned as she was by the revelation of her whole family history, made to her in this way at a stroke. And yet the lesson was rendered innocuous, so to say, by something great and good, a breath of profound humanity which had borne her through it. Nothing bad had come to her from it. She felt herself beaten by a sharp sea wind, the storm wind which ...
— Doctor Pascal • Emile Zola
... by the ministers; and there proved to be a historian among the Bowdens, who gave some fine anecdotes of the family history; and then appeared a poetess, whom Mrs. Todd regarded with wistful compassion and indulgence, and when the long faded garland of verses came to an appealing end, she turned to me with words ...
— The Country of the Pointed Firs • Sarah Orne Jewett
... family history was a relief, and Livingstone was just trying to think of something else to say, ...
— Santa Claus's Partner • Thomas Nelson Page
... addressing you does not require that I should go into my family history, or mention more of myself than that I was called to the Bar in '42; that I stood an unsuccessful election for Athlone; that I served as a captain in the West Coast Rifles; that I married a young lady of great personal attractions; and completed my misfortunes by taking the chairmanship ...
— Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General - Originally Published In Blackwood's Magazine - 1864 • Charles Lever
... Simpson (191. Piccadilly) will sell, on Monday next and four following days, a selection of valuable Books, including old poetry, plays, chap-books, and drolleries, and some important MSS. connected with English County and Family History. ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851 • Various
... the long-suit at Camp Meade. During the first few days at camp if the new recruit was lucky enough to be off detail work, the time was usually employed in filling out qualification cards, identification cards; telling your family history; making application for government insurance; subscribing to Liberty bonds; telling what you would like to be in the army; where you wanted your remains shipped; getting your finger-prints taken, and also getting your first jab in the arm which gave ...
— The Delta of the Triple Elevens - The History of Battery D, 311th Field Artillery US Army, - American Expeditionary Forces • William Elmer Bachman
... the consul. "But you won't have to go that far. Here's the scheme. After I get the trade-mark tattooed on your hand I'll notify old Urique. In the meantime I'll furnish you with all of the family history I can find out, so you can be studying up points to talk about. You've got the looks, you speak the Spanish, you know the facts, you can tell about Texas, you've got the tattoo mark. When I notify them that the rightful heir has returned and is waiting to know whether ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume X (of X) • Various
... never seen Aunt Emma. There had been feud between the families while my father lived, so she didn't visit The Grange after my mother's death. Aunt Emma had often explained to me in part how all that happened. It was the one point in our family history on which she'd ever been explicit: for she had a grievance there; and what woman on earth can ever suppress her grievances? It's our feminine way to air them before the world, as it's a man's to bury them deep in his own breast and ...
— Recalled to Life • Grant Allen
... own personal and our family history, I have also, quite extensively, translated our language into English and added many other items which might be interesting to all who may wish to inquire into ...
— History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan • Andrew J. Blackbird
... nobles served a good purpose until the kings, who were at first only very successful nobles, were able to bring nobles as well as peasants under their own rule and to compel every one to obey the same laws. After this the nobles became what we call an aristocracy, proud of their family history, generally living in better houses and owning more land than their neighbors, but with little ...
— Introductory American History • Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton
... the family. They seemed a happy, contented family, if one judged by appearance alone. After supper the children gathered around the table to prepare next day's lessons. They were bright little folks, but they mingled a great deal of talk with their studies and some of what they talked was family history. ...
— Letters of a Woman Homesteader • Elinore Pruitt Stewart
... keep order; the evident and good-natured determination of the crowd that the aforesaid officials shall 'have their hands full;' the loud voices and sharp questions of the challengers and their victim; the dainty bits of family history made public property; the overbearing insolence of the old lawyers, and the overweening impudence of the young ones; the open taverns; the rival carriages for the accommodation of doubtful, drunken, and lazy voters, together with the lively little incidents which diversify the picture as the culminating ...
— Adrift in the Ice-Fields • Charles W. Hall
... seeds of passion (Aunt Mary always pronounced the word "passion" in her narratives with strong emphasis), in the young girl's heart; and at various stages of her discourse she introduced fragments of the family history of the Evanses; she followed the wanderings of the different sisters from Homburg to Paris, from Paris to Scotland, from Scotland to the Punjab, explaining their different temperaments by heredity, which led her back into the obscure and ...
— Spring Days • George Moore
... tossed restlessly most of the night, while she wondered why Belle and Wilhelm were so cruel to her, and what the secret was to which Belle had referred; she had not, until then, been aware that there was anything mysterious connected with their family history. ...
— His Heart's Queen • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon
... the big reception-room," went on the girl, "and I bounced in on them. Mamma Rosine was giving him the family history—you ...
— Unfinished Portraits - Stories of Musicians and Artists • Jennette Lee
... and now at another, Iris had heard of Lord Harry's faults and failings in fragments of family history. The complete record of his degraded life, presented in an uninterrupted succession of events, had now forced itself on her attention for the first time. It naturally shocked her. She felt, as she had never felt before, how entirely right her ...
— Blind Love • Wilkie Collins
... acquiescence in the position of West Virginia within the Union, and a desire to bring back their sons from the Confederate service. The necessity of strict watch upon the communications sent through the lines brought to my notice a great deal of family history full of suffering and anxiety, and showed that that was indeed a fearful situation for a family when its young men were not only separated from them by military service in the field, but could only be heard from by the infrequent chances of communication under flags ...
— Military Reminiscences of the Civil War V1 • Jacob Dolson Cox
... he exclaimed. "Strange if I can't extract from a broken down old woman any items of family history that might serve my purpose. I'll call on the nurse—what's ...
— Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter • Lawrence L. Lynch |
