THERE have been many times since I began preparing the Clark(e) Genealogy for publication when I have wanted to ask Mr. Bryant what were his final conclusions regarding this or that problem, or how he would advise handling the meagre and conflicting records of one of the obscure branches. Now and then I have checked a family group in his manuscript with data in my files and discovered an item he did not have, and it has flashed across my mind, as so often it did during the past thirty-five years, that I must send a note of it to Mr. Bryant—and then with a shock have remembered that I am preparing his own book for posthumous publication.
My “genealogical friendship” with Mr. Bryant goes far back to the days when we were both amateurs “swapping” information. He was always kind and generous in responding to my own requests for aid, so it is with a somewhat melancholy pleasure that I see in his manuscript occasional items credited to my name or initials.

Mr. Bryant, by natural aptitude and legal training, possessed those qualifications which first-class genealogical work requires of its devotees. His interest in the subject began early in life, during his student years. His system was to search methodically through probate and land records to “set up” the family groups, and then to add the details provided by vital and church records. He visited many cemeteries and copied a large number of inscriptions from gravestones, and he called on or corresponded with many elderly descendants of the family. He was assiduous in “digging up” old Bible records and other documents in many branches of the family, and these he copied verbatim, himself, whenever possible, or had photostatic copies made to insure accuracy.
To set straight the early generations of the Clarks of Milford, Connecticut, perhaps to about 1800, was Mr. Bryant’s original idea. In the earlier stages of the work he was active in abstracting records in many places, and received valuable assistance from his sister, Mrs. Anne Elizabeth Basssett. To make sure of the identity of the wives and husbands of the Clarks, he worked out the genealogy, to or beyond 1800, of all the Milford families, only a degree less thoroughly than he worked out the Clarks themselves. Later, he was urged to bring the Clark family down to date, and made the effort to do so.
A respect for documentation shines all through Mr. Bryant’s work. He was averse to stating anything as a fact unless he felt he could defend his conclusions, if he had to, in a court of law. Even in his letters to genealogical correspondents, this trait is manifest. In my own Clark file I have come across a letter which he wrote to me in 1934, in which, replying to my suggestion that a certain record was probably erroneous, he gently rebuked me thus: “At the moment it does not seem to me that we can sajely say what records should be accepted and what rejected”
Many branches of the Clark family are brought down to 1916, to 1929, or to whatever date he last obtained information from the descendants of each branch. There are some missing branches. With a surname such as Clark, when a scion of the family moved “West” or simply dropped out of sight around 1800 without leaving a “forwarding address” or a clue to his new place of residence, it is like looking for the proverbial needle to try to locate him in haystacks throughout the entire country. No excuses are necessary for such unavoidable omissions, and they are not numerous. The wonder is that a man with a family and a multitude of other interests could find the time to produce such a fine family history.
In putting a large genealogy into print, something has to be done about the unsolved problems which had been held in abeyance in the hope that further evidence might come to light. Statements under the slightest shadow of questioned authenticity either have to be accepted on the basis of good but incomplete evidence, or rejected and cnnitted; or now and then, as a compromise, included in the book with the caution that the conclusions are probable but not fully proved. As editor, I have had to accept this responsibility, and I have tried to keep before me the high standards upon which Mr. Bryant always insisted.
A few words should be said about the spelling of the surname. Accustomed to spelling his own middle name with the final “e” Mr. Bryant seems in the earlier part of his work to have given the preference to that spelling. Later, he found that the official copy in Hartford of the will of the original Deacon George (missing from the probate records and files in New Haven) spells the surname in the signature without the final“e.” Today some branches use it, many do not. It is nozu a matter of individual preference, but undoubtedly Mr. Bryant came to realize, during the course of his work, that spelling of names in the early colonial period was not standardized and not considered of material importance. His manuscripts seem to indicate that in all but his early work he usually spelled the name Clark unless he knew positively that a specif ic branch employed the spelling Clarke. Whenever records are quoted or cited, the spelling of the original record has been followed. Otherwise, the form Clark has been generally employeel, except when Mr. Bryant's manuscripts specify that a certain branch employs the longer form. A few mistakes or ovei'- sights in regard to the spelling of the surname by individual descendants may come to light; if so, the editoi * expresses his regret, but does not feel they could have been avoided.

If I may be permitted to close in a personal vein, the task of preparing this book for publication has been a most congenial one, but with some very sad moments. Mr. Bryant’s personality almost speaks from his typed and written pages, with their characteristic marginal notes. At times, when considering difficult questions, I have imagined myself arranging the details of the prob¬ lem in logical order and submitting my conclusions to him far his (likewise imagined) acceptance or rejection. This, 1 profoundly believe, has aided me in bringing the substance of the book just a little closer to what he might have made it himself. And if I may indulge in a bit of fantasy, which I yet hope may hold a grain of reality, I picture meeting Mr. Bryant again, perhaps in same special den reserved far genealogists in heaven. His habitual kindliness will prompt him to say: “On the whole, I think you did a good job with my Clark Genealogy”—but I know he will add, with humorous lift of eyebrows, “Of course there are one or two matters which I might have handled a little differently. Noxv take that old problem of Oliver Clark, for instance . . . .”

Amazon:

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