This work is an exhaustive study of 160 families. For each family covered, a skeletal genealogy is given, showing births, marriages, and deaths in successive generations of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. This is then followed by a narrative detailing the known facts about each person and family according to existing records. The narratives commence with the first member of the family to come to New England, identifying his place of origin and occupation, the date and place of his arrival in New England, and his residence--all information that was accumulated from the author's extensive research in wills, inventories, deeds, land records, and church records. The narratives then turn to the children of the original settler, treating them in like manner, and to their children, and so on until the genealogy is fully developed.