THE ALTER FAMILY GENEALOGY

Gone But Not Forgotten

by: Duren James Henderson Ward June 17, 1851..... I expect to hear from many of you again. After you have studied this book, please write me regarding omissions, errors, and new facts. In every line of work like this, there are several chances to go wrong. The only way not to have made mistakes was not to have written it. However, these 2100 names may now help toward making a more comprehensive family record.... As long as health and years permit, I will print corrections and forward them to all who send data and latest addresses. You can thus keep your own book up to date by pasting in these extra slips, or by correction pages carefully with a pen..... In labor and expense, this little book has cost over five times as much as the average book of its size. Most books diminish in value as they become second hand and old. This, I hope, may increase as the years roll on. In fifty years, copies may be sod for twenty dollars. What might it be worth in five hundred years? Your request and appreciation pays for your copy, and one for the public library where generations you and I lived. See how far you can make it reach into the future by reaching children its importance and getting them interested in their own family and their ancestral stock.... On thousand copies are printed. They are sent free to the living in loving memory of the dead. May they be a memorial more lasting than the simple marble slabs that marked the dear sad resting places of those whose toll made the basis for our lives. Times and conditions made life to them one continuous hardship with small privileges. Yet, they were kind, honorable and measurably successful. We owe them the highest possible honor, and we shall have paid this debt only when we have emulated their spirit and surpassed their achievements. May each new generation, with its vastly higher privileges, maintain and improve the good name and reputation of those who have passed into history.... The procession marches on. I am only staying in it a little longer than most of the children in this book. When I lie down in their quiet circle, I shall leave no descendants to look over these records with the interest of grandchildren. I deliberately chose the career of home missionary in the modern sense. I have tried to understand human life, and see why it makes some progress and not more. The dilemma was plain: I might by prodigious effort reach what was called “education” and try to use it for inspiring and relieving others, or I may take the usual course, and bring up a family. It might even be possible to do both, but it wasn’t. The decision was made over fifty years ago. With what results I will never know. This record is the dearest of the many things so long planned. Many of them accomplished. Most of the other will be finished with the splendid help of generous friends who have been my students, and believe in these ideals.... With kindest purpose, and permanent interest in all of you.... D.J.H.W. These were the words wrote by Duren James Henderson Ward in his book “Ward-Munger Genealogy” that was published in 1926. I am fortunate to have an original copy of this little black book. I owe a great deal to my late cousin Duren. It was he and these words that inspired me when I was young to continue this research and genealogy some 50 years ago. Although not much has been completed on our ancestry, much has been done in updating our current Ward surname line. A great deal has been done on other associated surname lines. Duren did a genealogy in reversed order from what we do today. He started with what he knew to be fact, then he went forward researching the descendants of John Ward, born 1765. He did little researching ancestry of John Ward. Now, this is my brick wall. I am still working to find John Ward's b:1765 ancestors

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