Excerpt from The Perkins Family in Ye Olden Times: The Contents of a Series of Letters by the Late Mansfield Parkyns From your notes and letters I gather that you would like anything in the Shape of notes that I can find or decipher. I use many words and much time tearing up and writing over and over again, because from habit of writing to professionals I cannot yet tell exactly what points I need or need not explain, and so very likely I explain much that you already understand and do not explain where I ought. You will see that I am, as it were, talking the matter over with you as if in conver sation, telling you my notions just as they occur to me, and not laying down the law. So I hope you will freely argue or dispute anything which you do not agree to, or call attention to points you wish to have explained. I have written fully what occurred to me, because you may chance to find something to fit with some knowledge you have and which I should have omitted if I tried to condense; and other of the notes may be useful in other ways. You hope I will point out mistakes. I would willingly do so, because, having helped a good many people in various matters besides genealogy, I know from experience that the very best assistance is given in eriti cising mistakes. It is useless to supply people with information till they have learned how to properly assimilate it. It only disagrees with them and gives them trouble. I have had no opportunity with you because you chiefly send me statements of other persons without any indication of how far you believe or disbelieve them. My interest in all these questions depends on how far I can be of use to you. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.