Excerpt from The Belmont-Belmonte Family: A Record of Four Hundred Years, Put Together From the Original Documents in the Archives and Libraries of Spain, Portugal, Holland, England and Germany, as Well as From Private SourcesHE study OF genealogies IS A science full of pitfalls. It is a part of the larger science of historiography, forming Often the basis upon which the account of peoples and events is built up. But the idea that history must be written for the sake simply of depicting the march of events and of understanding the forces of which these events are the exponents is one of comparatively recent date.In former times history was written with a tendency. Its object was to exalt the one, to depreciate the other, whether these were men or combinations of men. In a similar manner genealogies were written for the purpose of proving something, of showing a line of descent in the interest of some one branch or other of a family, for upon such proof depended the right to bear a certain title, to enter into the ranks of a certain order. The real student, however, must have no such ob jcet in view. He must pick his way through the mazes and entangle ments that surmount his path with the one Object in mind, to get at the truth, and when actual proof fails and combinations and suppositions take its place, he must frankly state them to be such.Happily the student of to-day is placed in a more advantageous posi tion than was his forerunner. Means are at his very elbows which were far removed and difficult of access in times gone by. Libraries are the passion of the day and seductively lure the searcher after truth. In Olden times, It Is true, family and state records were preserved, but often in an uncertain manner, in unprotected places and in indifferent copies. The spread of writing and printing, the daily mirror of events pictured in the press, will make the work of the future student more certain, even though it render it more arduous. Families are now more apt to seek and preserve a knowledge of their past. Municipalities and states treasure up their historical documents. The historian is so up to date that he is continually at the heel of time, the gap between events and their recording is, with few exceptions, a negligible quantity.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.