This book includes the genealogy and family history of 100 American Originals, male and female, who were among the first European settlers of America, especially in the New York, New Jersey area

This book is divided into 35 sections. Each section contains the family history of the American Original Founder of that family. They are:

Sloan, Elmendorf, Van Vechten, Zabriskie, Crooke, Kierstede, Van Wagenen, Middagh, Du Mont, La Grange, Vreeland, Braeck, Mesereau, Vroom Corsen, Van Ness, Van Buskirk, Bergen, De Rapalje, Varick, Vander Linde, Bertholf, Blanchan, Van Ceulen, Roosa, Viele, De Trieux, De Haes Haas, Vander Grift, Lubbertsen, Jansen, Jonas, Chadaine, Durie, Demarest.

Also included are original signatures and original court documents dating back to the 1630s, including transactions with the Indians who were the residents of Manhattan before the Dutch arrived.

It is about the genealogy of Railroad Tycoon Sam Sloan (1817-1907), whose statue stands near the PATH Train station in Hoboken NJ, and his son, Benson Bennett Sloan (1867-1958), and his grandsons Benson Bennett Sloan Jr. (1915-1994), William Milligan Sloan (1916-1994) and Samuel Sloan III (1919-2001). It traces back every ancestor to the "American Original", which means the first ancestor of each branch of the family that came to America.

On the paternal side, the earliest ancestor who had come to America was William Sloan (1794-1830).

On the maternal side, the wife of Samuel Sloan and the mother of Benson Bennett Sloan was Margaret Elmendorff (1822-1913), who was Dutch. The Dutch first settled and took ownership of Manhattan Island in 1620. The ancestors of Margaret Elmendorf were among the first settlers of New York, which was then called New Amsterdam. One of the ancestors of Margaret Elmendorf was the first female European child ever to be born in New York.