"This book will make absolutely no sense to the reader unless it is used side-by-side with the book titled The families of Henry Nail and Thomas Ray, pioneers of Shelby Co., Indiana. The two books must be used together and kept together in order for the record to be as complete as we could get it, up through 1983. There are a few 1984 dates"--Preface.

Christian Nagel II (1693-1751) married twice, and immigrated in 1751 from Germany (via Rotterdam) to Berks County, Pennsylvania. Descen- dants lived in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and related families.

Heinrich Nagel (Henry Nail) (1771-1827), son of Gottlieb Nagel (Caleb Nail) and his wife Margaret of Döffingen, Germany, married 1798 in Rowan Co., North Carolina, Mary Keller (1776-1857), the daughter of Jacob and Barbara Keller. Henry Nail died in Addison Twp., Shelby Co., Indiana. They were parents of thirteen children. Gottlieb Nagel (Caleb Nail) arrived in Pennsylvania in 1754 where he spent the next twenty years. By about 1774 he had left Pennsylvania and moved with at least four of his children to North Carolina. Thomas Ray (1762-1829) was the son of William Ray of Wake Co., N.C. He was born in Granville Co., North Carolina. He married in Wake County Elizabeth Pearce (ca. 1764-1844) in 1783. She was the daughter of Nathan and Nance Weston? Pearce. Family members migrated to Shelby County, Ind. in the early 1820s.

Henry Nail and Mary Keller were married in about 1798. They had twelve children. Their first son, John, was born in 1799 in Rowan County, North Carolina. In about 1820 John married Martha Ray, the daughter of Thomas Ray and Elizabeth Pierce. In 1822 and 1823 the two Nail families migrated to Shelby County, Indiana. John's family and his widowed mother moved to Montgomery County, Illinois in 1852. Descendants and relatives lived in North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Missouri and elsewhere.