The Author’s pioneer ancestors were early settlers in the western movement, sometimes trekking roughly cleared pathways behind teams of oxen. Family meetings and marriages at New Ipswich, NH, Watervliet, NY, New Castle, KY, Richmond, IN, Old Oxford, IL, Mt. Pleasant, IW, Firth, NE, and Denver, CO, form the basis of this historical and genealogy story. Family chronicles, deeds, wills, census records, tombstones and written biological sketches form the basis for this book. Research was conducted in 87 counties in 22 states from Maine to Colorado, and also Wales, Scotland and England, over a 16 year period.

Elidir Ddu (fl. 1302-1326) was the son of Elidir ap Rhys of Crug, Wales. He was the father of Philip and grandfather of Nicholas ap Philip ap Syr Elidir Ddu. Nicholas married Sioned, daughter of Gruffydd ap Llwelyn Foethus of Llangathen and became the father of Gruffydd ap Nicholas who became a powerful Welsh nobleman. He was married three times and became the father of eleven children, several of whom also rose to prominence. One of his grandchildren was Sir Rhys ap Thomas (d. 1525) who was important during the Wars of the Roses and then alligned himself with Henry VII, a fellow Welshman.

Thomas Mould, son of William Molds and Mary Edith Pick, was born in 1827 in Woodcroft, Northamptonshire, England. He married Rose Ann Mackness, daughter of Jabez Mackness and Mary Wade, in 1852. They had eleven children. He died in 1906. Descendants and relatives lived mainly in England, the United States and New Zealand.

The bibliographic holdings of family histories at the Library of Congress. Entries are arranged alphabetically of the works of those involved in Genealogy and also items available through the Library of Congress.