This commom salutation of reception, but unusual word of introducion, is to be taken in its broadest sense as indicating to you, dear reader, that the family of Pearsall, in all its spellings and wherever situated, is honored by your presence and is complimented by you attention. It also implies most strongly that you are welcome to wander as you please through this intimate account of our family history.

If you are a relative, and therefore our cousin, you are more than welcome, as all this wealth of great deeds herein related, and this unbroken chain of noble ancestry which is herein woven into a connected pedigree is yours-- yours alone if you so desire it. All that we ask is that you will most selfishly take it all to yourself, get all you possibly can of it, so that you may emulate as far as you may be able the greatness and goodness of your ancestors, remembering that he alone is great who does noble deeds, no matter how small those deed may be, nor how far they may be hidden from public observation.

As I spent considerable time and money unravelling the threads of my ancestry, I had to call upon those who were not in my immediate family, and I soon accumulated a wealth of material relative ot other lines. The thought, that there might be others equally as interested as I, deterined me to broaden my work so as to include all of the Pearsalls in America. Later I came in touch with a branch of the family in Australia and through them came to know the cousins in England. So almost before I knew it I had compiled material for a history of the family, starting from living members of the family on both sides of the ocean and in Australia as well, an incident which, of itself, I am told is very remarkable in works in this kind.

Thus, from a purely personal family genealogy the book resolved itself into a history of a family of which records existed running back to a time prior to the assumption of the family name. It is confidently believed that these historical facts will not only prove valuable and very interesting to those related to us, but they will open up new fields of research for others.

By Clarence Pearsall
Vol. I; Chapter One,
Excerpts taken from:
HISTORY AND GENEALOGY OF THE PEARSALL FAMILY IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA
published in 1928.

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