INTRODUCTION.Nearly 20 years ago, while on a visit to the home of my ancestors in Massachusetts, I became interested in genealogy. My first efforts were directed to the tracing of my line of descent from John White of Wenham, 1639, an extended genealogy of whose descendants has recently been completed by Miss Almira L. White of Haverhill, Mass.W^hile assisting in this work, I became deeply interested in the various families from which I am descended through both my parents, and found that in some lines, genealogies had already been published. On my mother's side, I found two apparently unrelated Barber families. The American ancestor of one of these was Thomas Barber of Windsor, Conn., (born about 1614), and the earliest American ancestor of the other family, of whom positive record has been obtained, was John Barber of Worcester, Mass., probably born in Boston in 1714.Of neither of these families had a genealogy been published, though I learned through correspondence that several descendants of Thomas Barber of Windsor, Conn., had done more or less work in tracing their direct lineages. Among these were the late Peter J. Barber of Santa Barbara, Cal., and the late Levi A. Barber of Duluth, Minn., who, some years ago, published a small pamphlet containing in brief form, the records of his direct line. Mr. George H. Barbour of Detroit, Mich., had employed Mr. Fred Carlisle to prepare and publish a very small volume of Barber records, but devoted mainly to Mr. Barbour's direct line of ancestry. Also, the late Mr. Oliver E. Wilson of Norwalk, Conn., had made a small collection of records, which his son kindly furnished for use in the present compilation.Mrs. Minnie Ward Kellogg, of Syracuse, N. Y., had collected some records of the branch of the Barber family from which sheis descended, and which in the fourth generation from Thomas of Windsor settled in New York State.Through correspondence with Mr. Edmund D. Barbour of Boston, "^Mass., I learned that while collecting records for a genealogy of the descendants of George Barber of Medway, he had secured a large amount of data regarding the descendants of John Barber of Worcester, supposing at the time, that this John Barber was a descendant of George of Medway. Failing to establish this connection, however, Mr. Barbour kindly entered into an arrangement for turning over to me this collection of records.The original intention was to publish in one volume, not only the records of the two Barber families already referred to, but also the records of the descendants of Thomas Gleason of Wat-ertown, Mass.I finally employed Miss Lillian May Wilson to edit the pro posed volume, to establish certain missing links in the genealogical chain and to make such further compilation as could be done in a limited time.In the few months allotted for the work. Miss Wilson gathered so much additional matter, that it was found that the Barber records alone, would make a large volume, and it was therefore decided to publish them in one volume, and to publish a separate Gleason Genealogy, which has been done.The Barber Genealogy is composed of two sections, as follows:Section i. A Genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Barber of Windsor, Conn., compiled by Miss Wilson.Section ii. A Genealogy of the descendants of John Barber of Worcester, Mass., the records for which were furnished, as already explained, by Mr. Edmund D. Barbour of Boston, Mass.Much credit is due Miss Wilson, without whose careful and thorough preparation and distinguished ability for this kind of work, this volume would not have attained its present proportions, nor would it so soon have been published.
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