Following up on her 2004 work, "Families of Cabarrus County, North Carolina," Kathleen Marler has now assembled an alphabetically arranged collection of abstracts of early inhabitants of Mecklenburg County, the parent county of Cabarrus. The principal sources for her new book are Mecklenburg County Deed Volumes 1-3 (July 1778 through September 1786), Mecklenburg wills, the 1790 U.S. Census for Mecklenburg County, and several other primary and secondary sources.

The number of males about fighting age constituted the majority of those counted.

Stories about the author's ancestors and family history, some factual, some with fictionalized elements.

Probably the finest genealogical record ever compiled on the people of ancient Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, this work consists of extensive source records and documented family sketches. Collectively, what is presented here is a veritable history of a people--a "tribe" of people--who settled in the valley between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers more than two hundred years ago. The object of the book is to show where these people originated and what became of them and their descendants. Included among the source records are the various lists of the Signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration; Abstracts of Some Ancient Items from Mecklenburg County Records; Marriage Records and Relationships of Mecklenburg People; List of Public Officials of Mecklenburg County, 1775-1785; First U.S. Census of 1790 by Districts; Tombstone Inscriptions; and Sketches of the Mecklenburg Signers. The work concludes with indexes of subjects and places, as well as a name index of 5,000 persons. (Part III of "Lost Tribes of North Carolina.")