The Ancestry of Amelia Marilla Morley: The Morleys Reach Ohio

The Ancestry of Amelia Marilla Morley presents her family history from the 1500s in England through the American colonial period and revolution to the deaths of her parents in the American Midwest in the 1880s. Mr. Bruey tells the family stories with a personal style attractive to both young and old readers. A remarkable depth of historical and genealogical research is apparent throughout the book. Antique woodcuts, maps, charts, old records, and other images illuminate the text. The Ancestry represents a new form of genealogical narrative that Mr. Bruey calls storied family history. The women’s as well as the men’s lines are traced, and a story about each family or its times is told for every generation of every family line. As he states in the Introduction, genealogy makes history come alive, and history makes genealogy come alive. The narrative is followed by notes for genealogists. An extensive bibliography lists online and printed sources and offers advice on their use. A conventional ancestry report presents the genealogical facts. Indexes provide ready ways to search the pages for people and places.