The Society was incorporated May 9, 1909, and Temporary Officers were elected May 10, 1909. Permanent Officers were elected May 31 1969 (a legal holiday) and were legally elected June 3, 1909.

†Died in office.

"Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the

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land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

GENEALOGY “DEBUNKED”.

CARL VERNON TOWER

Collegeville, Penn.

Member No. 8

strange title under which to write some words of greeting to the readers of this Seventeenth Annual Report of the Tower Genealogical Society, is it not? But the greeting, which is extended not only to all members of our Society, but to all members of our family whom we have not yet persuaded to join with us, is even heartier than in previous years. For the years that have passed since that memorable day in May when, for the first time, we gathered at the Old Homestead and learned that as members of one family we possessed interests in common that should be cultivated, have brought rich appreciation of the associations and friendships that have been established, and increased understanding of the advantages that accrue to us all from this T. G. S. of ours.

So 'bide a wee before passing judgment upon what I shall say here. I am not "knocking.' Indeed, the real knockers are not those who "knock," in the usual sense of that word, but those who by their silence and unresponsiveness to the appeal for coöperative effort proclaim more loudly than by words their belief that a cause is—“bunk." Can there be any in our family who are of this state of mind with respect to it and to our effort to promote within it the knowledge of what we are and of how that knowledge is worth while? Then it is to you chiefly that I address these lines.

"Bunk" is an ugly and contemptuous word. But between you and me and the President, whose editorial pen was aquiver as he read my title, there is much bunk nowadays. Again, just among ourselves, it is an age in which all things are being debunked, and for this benefit which the age is conferring upon us we should pay it the tribute of a passing word.

The spotlight of publicity is playing upon religion and politics, upon our law-making and crime-provoking proclivities, upon history and national tradition and international diplomacy-even occasionally upon Congress-and the bunk that was in shadow is being revealed.

War is being debunked, divested of that great delusion that it is valor-, and virtue-creating, grand and glorious, that it is biologically necessary, and that the way to peace will never be found.

Patriotism of the old vociferous flag-waving sort arouses nowadays our suspicion more often than our admiration. We no longer break into wild cheering when we hear some one called-probably by the callee himself- -a "one-hundred percent American." No, we quietly wait, confident that his next broadcasted address will waft to our listening ears phrases like "splendid isolation,” “traditional policies," "not mixing in other people's affairs," and the like, that will enable us to figure out for ourselves the correct percentage.

Wets and Drys, Fundamentalists and Modernists, are busily engaged in debunking one another to the delight and edification of a public which divides its time between automobiling and listening-in. Is it art, or education, or religion that you prefer? You have only to get the right station and what you last heard about the matter will be cleverly debunked while you wait.

The psychoanalyst is busy, too, revealing our hidden complexes, bunk that was hidden in infancy and childhood, in the very depths of our being, only to appear in adult life as annoying and more or less dangerous obsessions.

Perhaps the historian is the most active and aggressive of all the debunkers, and occasionally, in his myth-hunting through the pages of musty record, he uncovers something that evokes a grin and we forgive him the shock which he gave our habits of thought.

Take Professor Faulkner, for instance, from whose article I filched the now academicised colloquialism "debunked." If you happen to be, and of course you are, being Towers, of "plain old New England stock,"-"sturdy" may be substituted for "plain," if preferred-you may have entertained the idea that, since

your ancestor (on the Tower side) did not come over in the Mayflower and possibly did not have for his own ancestor a swashbuckling cavalier with a patent of nobility in his pocket, or pending, like the beflounced human arsenal in the picture which your F. F. V. neighbor proudly points out to you, genealogy is not for such as you and me. As for you, you say, you will continue to nurse your inferiority complex until such time as a scandalously ill-financed Tower Genealogical Society can present you with the portrait of a medieval pirate whom you can call your very own. If such is your state of mind-though it can't be, for the Towers I have met are men of sense then, at the risk of stirring up sectional animosities, I advise the reading of "Colonial History Debunked,' wherein you will find that those same F. F. Vs., with whom the sturdy New Englander was wont dourly to contrast himself, were after all, "not so much." But "be quick about it, friend," for the debunkers are even now busily engaged upon the professor's article. In history, as in genealogy and life, you never know what will turn up.

"But," I hear some of you say, "we are not debunking GENEALOY, as you promised. We have merely debunked an idea about it, the idea, namely, that it is important only for families which sport a duke or two somewhere along the line, or which can point to a strain of idiocy sufficiently marked to make them scientifically interesting." Well, anyway, it is a very common and particularly pernicious idea that we have come across, an idea provocative of unneighborly feelings and discord, whereas Genealogy, pursued as a science, is a unifying influence which engenders enthusiasm and maintains respect for those social and moral values that are transmitted through the medium of family. In this day when every public lecturer is telling us that western civilization hangs in the balance, let me remind you of what the sociologists are saying about it: that if the hold of family upon us weakens, those values in which a stable civilization is rooted are gone. Now Genealogy is the science which endeavors to strengthen those values by telling us the facts about family, a family such as ours.

"A family!" exclaims some doubting Thomas among you. "Ah, now we are coming to the bunk that is in Genealogy. Is not each one of us a member of many families? Have not I, for instance, four grandparents and thirty-two great-greatgreat-grandparents? Why, in the time of John Tower, whose descendant in the 10th generation I am, I should have something like 1024 ancestors. Consider how diluted is the John Tower blood that runs in my veins. Why should I join with you in securing information about Towers? Why should I assist in promoting the publication of a new and complete "Tower Genealogy?" I am but 1/1024 Tower. Laugh that off, if you please.'

It is a knock-out blow, is it not, dear Kinsman? We should be sorry that we dropped into dialogue with you. But before we take the count, permit us to rise feebly upon one elbow and propound a question which appears to have a bearing upon what you say. What are they doing for you · these relatives who

are as the sands of the sea for numbers these descendants of 1023? How many of the Browns and the Smiths and the Robinsons,* whose relationship you now claim, have claimed relationship with YOU for your mutual encouragement and benefit? How many of these, having records concerning themselves, care whether you are a saint or a criminal? How many have an organized society of men and women interested in those special human traits and qualities that are transmitted through family? By how many of these others are you welcomed at family reunions where you may meet those of your kin, both near and remote, with whom you have a common interest and with whom you may cultivate those family ties that are the basis of broader human fellowship?

You can count them on the fingers of one hand. Probably only your thumb will be needed. You have many ancestors, you say. Yes, but you have few relatives who know them -and you.

Friend, we fear that some one has been spoofing you about Genealogy. We had thought of your idea years ago--and debunked it.

Do you perhaps imagine that we are jealous of those Browns and Smiths and Robinsons whose blood runs in your veins? Must we take space to debunk this idea also? On the contrary, then, we deprecate that very lack of interest in

*Harold U. Faulkner; "Colonial History Debunked." Harper's Magazine, December, 1925.

To the best of the writer's knowledge there are Browns, Smiths and Robinsons who have excellent Genealogies, and, no doubt, genealogical societies of their own. The names are here used with a quite impersonal reference as equivalent to families X and Y and Z.

family, and selfish unconcern for the opportunities that are found in the study of family, which makes it impossible for you to find among all the descendants of your ancestors more than one or two societies that are endeavoring to do for you and your posterity what the T. G. S. is now doing.

Posterity! Well, you do think of that, even if ancestry means little to you. You would be ashamed to confess that you do not, for it enters by implication into all of your thought and conversation that concerns public welfare, the future of America, the future of education, the future of society. Yes, posterity interests you because, let us say, you have a son who is your very own. "Your very own," did I say? No! After all, he is only one-half yours. And that grandson whom you cherish quite as much—such devotion is common, you know he is your "very own," you say. But no, he is only one-fourth yours and your interest should be diminished by three-fourths. And your great-grandson— well, reckon it up for yourself. You should worry about posterity! By the time the 10th generation from you is reached, how much of YOU will be there to count? "Oh, but it would be very nice to have a long family line reckoned from ME,' you now say. So you DO believe, friend, that something of the physical and mental "ME" will be left, no matter how many generations are to come-enough, anyway, to make the family which starts from "ME" important and interesting? Well, you are right, and you are on scientific ground. You are not lost. But you must be consistent, you know. John Tower is not lost to you and to us. The investigations that have been made on the basis of family statistics prove it and testify to the supreme importance of accurate family records, in order that more may be known of the factors that go to the making of human society.

Now science, Fellow Kinsman, is just a methodical way men have found of debunking things, of substituting facts for fictions. Genealogy is the science which debunks family, giving us in place of meagre and untrustworthy information true records which are a source of satisfaction to its members, and which will in time prove of the utmost value as a contribution to the study of heredity and to our knowledge of the ways by which we may take account of its laws for the improvement of human qualities, physical and mental and moral.

You did not think of Genealogy in just this way? You thought of it as a sort of exclusive parlor study, the pastime of people of doddering intellect who fancy that they belong to families that have "arrived?" Then I have debunked another false notion of Genealogy that you have harbored.

Would that I had editorial leave for more debunking, that I might attack the idea, still favored by the ill-informed, that the pedigree of a man's pups and poultry is of more importance to him than the knowledge of his own progenitors, for civilization does not properly begin until men have left this idea behind them. We should find, I believe, that while everything which is humanly interesting contains at least a sufficient amount of bunk to provoke our zeal for its elimination, most of the bunk that is in Genealogy is to be extracted from the wrong ideas which people who have not looked into it have concerning it.

And now, as all future work which a society like our own may perform is dependent, first of all, upon the gathering and compilation of all available data regarding the family, and, quite as much, upon the publication of such data in a form that will render this information accessible to us all and usable in our future work, it is important that we all as members of the Tower family, devote ourselves whole-heartedly to this work of publication of our records. Through the untiring and unfinanced efforts of the Secretary and President of the Society the work of securing all data that, under present circumstances, it is possible to obtain, has been performed.

THE NEW "TOWER GENEALOGY" IS READY FOR PUBLICATION

To you who have proved your faith in the purposes of our family society by continuing membership with us I need say nothing. You will look for the new “Genealogy" eagerly and will do what you can individually to secure its early appearance.

To you others who have not yet found in yourselves the single dollar's worth of faith in the cause which our Society represents, and which is all the T. G. S. asks of you as an annual fee and pledge of your interest, we offer the suggestion that you give the whole matter fresh and thoughtful consideration. We believe that if you will do so, you will then join us and work with us for a bettered knowl