Preface
In 2009, I endeavored to write the biography of James Ware I and his wife, Agnes Todd Ware. In preparation for doing this, I had previously spent over 20 years transcribing and researching old documents and family letters that had been passed down to me from my husband’s parents. Since ‘firsthand’ information from 1714 is not that common, most of the papers I had in my possession actually pertained more to the son of James and Agnes – James Ware II. (It is through this son that our family line descends.) There was enough there, however, to warrant an attempt at ‘fleshing out’ the history of James and Agnes. I titled my first work New Nation/New Home, and in 2011, I completed a second book, Virginia Roots in Kentucky Soil, which chronicled the life of James II. Little did I know, at the time, that the research I did for the second book would show clearly that I had just “scratched the surface” with James I.
With genealogy websites so accessible these days and
interest in this field prolific, there was suddenly a plethora of new bibles and
documents that fellow researchers decided to post and share. I realized quickly that my first
feeble attempt at a history for James and Agnes was now obsolete and desperately
in need of a literary facelift.
Consequently, I have spent the last two years revising New Nation/New Home
so that I (hopefully) have done better justice to the remarkable man who headed
the Ware family during the years this nation was formed.
As is always the case with genealogy, I know that the
minute I put the last period on the last sentence of this book, it will (once
again) become outdated. New
information emerges every day, and there are attics that have yet to be explored
that hold treasures of information.
That is both the satisfaction and the frustration of the field in which we
genealogists thrive. Our work is
never done.
With that being said, I humbly offer this new version of
New Nation/New Home with the sincere hope that it will be a tool for others
to use on their own personal journey of tracing their roots. I ask the reader to understand that
this has been a labor of love, and any mistakes or omissions are the result of
simply working with what I had available to me at the time.
The reader will sometimes notice a request to “see Virginia Roots in Kentucky Soil” attached to a specific section. I have attempted to write only new information that has surfaced in those chapters without repeating everything that was written in the sequel. There will be some overlap, however, in order for the book to stand on its own merit.
A work of this magnitude could not be accomplished without the kind and generous contributions of others – many of whom I will draw special attention to in the acknowledgements. I also, however, want to thank each person (often known only by initials in an email message) who sent me an encouraging message or kind remark about my writing over these years. You have spurred me on and kept me enthusiastic about this project. I hope this final product is worthy of your thoughtfulness.
©JCW 2013
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