The Motleys of Virginia

Original was 6 x 9, copy is two pages on 8.5 x 11 page. 209 pages.

$14.25   

We have been printing family histories for over 50 years. We have an office copy of most of those books and can make a copy for you to have. We then staple and tape bind the book with a soft cover. We know that this is not as good as an original book, but at least you can have access to the valuable information that is in each book.

                   PREFACE
     Very few American families that are not of noble or royal descent; especially those of the origin of Great Britain, which comprise most of the descendants of early settlers of New England, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.
     It is noticeable that those who affect indifference, and who have given the least help to the preparation of family history are the first to boast of the honored records it alone preserves of their ancestry and the first to find fault with its errors or omissions.
    It is a well-known fact that the gentle blood of the British Isles today is not only found among titled families, but also among the middle class families or landed gentry, most of whom trace their descent back to the Conquest.
    The history of this class is the history of the British Isles. To this class belonged the Virginia settlers of the 17th century. Virginia settlers were given the headright of fifty acres of land for every soul brought into the Colony.
    The best result of a known and valued lineage is the ambition to be worthy of it. Very few families have done anything to rescue their history from oblivion, and this in spite of the fact that there is in Virginia especially a wealth of material so eminently worthy of preservation.
We will feel well repaid if, in any degree, it will stimulate research and efforts to preserve the valuable history of other families of Virginia and elsewhere.
    To make this volume more interesting for young and old alike, we have added folklore which has been preserved and handed down from generation to generation, but for the main part we have held mainly to the genealogical data of the family.
    Although we have not as yet established proof, the general consensus of opinion is that the family originated in Wales. That the first Motley left Wales bound for America and was not heard of thereafter, presumably having been shipwrecked. Then the family name is picked up in Virginia, from whence most of our data has been accumulated, which led us to name this volume "The Motleys of Virginia. "
   We are researching now in Wales, and if or when the connection between our Virginia Motley and the Wales Motleys is proven, we can then add additional volumes which will include the Wales branch of Motleys.