sources as have the Easterners.  It is not likely that they will, for those sources are more accessible.  We have Virginia families who still keep up friendly intercourse with the old stock; Vermont families who spend each summer on the old homestead; and so on.  The New Englander did not and could not keep up similar relations with Old England.  Even the Southerner, who did it for a time, had to drop it.  Our inter-communication with Europe has grown enormously in volume, but little of it, if any, is due to continuous ancestral interest, although a revived general interest has sprung up and is to be commended.

I fear, however, that the greater part of this interest in sources, where it exists, is very far from an intelligent connection with the body of historical fact.  When a man is proud of the fact that an ancestor took part in the famous Boston Tea Party, has he taken any pains to ascertain what actually took place on that occasion?  If he claims descent from Pocahontas, can he tell us just how much of what we currently believe of her is fact and how much is myth?  If he knows that his family came from Cheshire, England, and was established and well-known there for centuries, what does he know of the history of Cheshire and of the connection of his ancestors with it?  Our interest, when it exists, is concentrated too much on trivial happenings.  We know and boast that an ancestor came over in the Mayflower without knowing of the family doings before and after that event.  Of course, connection with some one picturesque event serves to stimulate the imagination and focus the interest, but these events should serve as starting points for investigation rather than resting points where interest begins and ends.  Historical students are beginning to realize that it is not enough to know about the battle of Hastings without understanding the causes and forces that led to it and proceeded from it, and the daily lives and thoughts of those who took part in it, from captain to spearman.

This failure to link up family history with general history is responsible for many sad losses of historical material.  Many persons do not understand the value of old letters and diaries; many who do, keep them closely in the family archives where they are unknown and unappreciated.  Old letters containing material that bears in any way on the events, customs or life of the time, should be turned over to the local historical society.  If they contain private matter, seal up the packet and require that it shall remain sealed for a century, if you wish; but do not burn it.  The feeling that destroys such documents is simply evidence that we are historically valuing the individual and the family above the community, just as we still are in so many other fields of thought.  I cannot tolerate the idea that we shall ultimately think only in terms of the common good; the smaller units, the man, the family must not lose their influence, but the connection between them and the general welfare must be better understood and more generally recognized; and this must be done, in the first place, in all that relates to their historical records and to our historical consciousness.