PREFACE

ABOUT four years ago a movement was inaugurated looking to the publication at some time in the not distant future of a more complete history of the Schwenkfelders than has yet appeared, and a committee charged with the collection of material for such work was appointed at the Annual Conference of the Society in October, 1875. The labors of that committee naturally turned the attention of their constituents to the subject of genealogy, and excited a very general desire for the compilation from the many existing manuscripts of a complete genealogy of the descendants of the immigrant Schwenkfelders. By common consent the superintendence of such compilation was devolved upon the undersigned, who engaged the services of Rev. Reuben Kriebel to collect and transcribe the several records in a form suitable for printing. The present volume is the result of their labors. The Rev. Balthasar Heebner, who died at an advanced age in 1848, had prepared and kept a record of marriages, births, and deaths of those who belonged to the Society of Schwenkfelders (of which he was a minister) to within a few years of his death. This record was the most complete one extant, yet in many instances omissions occurred, which had to be supplied, partially from other manuscripts, and from other records, kept in family Bibles, etc. As Mr. Heebner kept no record of those who did not adhere to the Society, other means had to be resorted to for the necessary information. This involved considerable labor, and the compiler opened a correspondence with all from whom he could obtain any knowledge.

This correspondence extended nearly into every State of the Union. In most cases he was quite successful, yet in a few he failed to get the desired information for his purpose. This