Excerpt from The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 1872, Vol. 3: Devoted to the Interests of American Genealogy and BiographyWe have thus traced the various genealogic currents which converged and were united in our friend's veins, not merely because they were honorable, or because of their intrinsic interest as a part of the history of our city and its neighborhood, but because we, as genealogists, firmly believe that, in order to know a man thoroughly, to read his character intelligently, to judge him with that even measure of justice with which we should wish ourselves to be judged, while we live, and after we are dead. It is indispensable that we should know something of his ancestral beginnings. For it is in these that we detect and trace the operation of that rare and subtile essence - distilled in the alembic of Time, from diverse sources - which we vaguely and\some~ what rudely call blood, and which imparts to the individual life the peculiar idiosyncracies which, in some measure, explain its career, and account for its foibles and its virtues. For example, I can truly say that since I have traced Mr. Gautier's ancestry, from the papers which he left, I have obtained a truer estimate of his character than I should probably have acquired through a much longer acquaintance with him, had his life been Spared.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.