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Family History Books by Matthew Wise
The late Matthew Montgomery Wise, Ph.D., a noted
Eastern Shore family historian, was the great-grandson of Thomas G. Ward of
Manokin in Somerset County. Wise was a retired professor of English and
department chair at Roanoke College. His education included a B.A. from George
Washington University (1944), M.A. George Washington University (1946), and
Ph.D. from Columbia University (1955). Wise conducted comprehensive and
meticulous research for his publications. He and his wife Nancy interviewed and
corresponded with many descendants of the early settlers of the Eastern Shore,
making many friends along the way.
His book, "The Boston Family of Maryland" (Second Edition Revised with
Supplement) was published in 1986 and is no longer available in print. It has
been reproduced in its entirety on Nabb Research Center’s website with the permission of Nancy Wise, widow of the author. The book contains a wealth of information about
the Boston family and its affiliates.
Title pages and Table of Contents
(PDF: 1.3 MB)
Introduction, Main Content, Supplements, & Indexes (PDF:
121.2 MB)
Dr. Wise also wrote "The Littleton Heritage: Some American Descendants of Col.
Nathaniel Littleton (1605-1654) of Northampton Co., Virginia, and His Royal
Forebears." This latter book, published in 1997, details information about many
branches of the Littleton family. Whittington, Long, Roach, Bell, Wilson,
Savage, Waters, Eyre, Tazewell, Robins, Denwood, Gilliss, Winder, Fassitt,
Tingle and Purnell are but a few of the families mentioned. We are happy to
reproduce the "The Littleton Heritage"
(PDF: 42.2 MB)
(Table
of Contents and Preface)
on our website to benefit researchers of
the myriad of family names included in the book.
At the time of his passing in June of 2000, Dr. Wise was at work on his next
publication concerning the Long family, on which he had researched some 30
years. Mrs. Wise presented his research materials to the Nabb Center and one of
our dedicated volunteers, Polly Batchelder, has spent several years writing,
reviewing and editing the material. She has completed her work and we are in the
process having the data entered for publication. We hope this will be
accomplished in the near future and will also be available online on Nabb’s
website. In the meantime, here is the Draft copy:
DraftLongFamilyBook.pdf (PDF:
60.6 MB).
Regarding the "Boston Book" available here on our site, in order to keep the
index page references correct, the book has been divided into two parts. The
first section includes the title page, prefaces, table of contents, list of maps
and illustrations, and notes explaining abbreviations and sources. The second
section includes the introduction, the book itself, supplements and indexes.
Names can be researched using the indexes. Note that there are differences in
numbers referenced in different indexes. Numbers in the Index refer to entries,
not to pages. Entry numbers are at the top of each page in the body of the
text. The Index to Appendix III refers to page numbers. Be sure to read the
notation at the beginning of each index in order to find the proper entry within
the text. When page numbers are indicated in the index, they will correspond to
the pdf document page numbers (except for two small exceptions due to the layout
of the original). Bookmarks are also included to separate the chapters.
These projects would not have been possible without the
approval of Mrs. Nancy Wise, the support of the Fair Play Foundation, and the
encouragement of Thomas Fooks V, Board member emeritus of the Nabb Research
Center.
Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view PDF files. This is a free program available from the
Adobe web site. Follow the download directions on the Adobe web site to get your copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
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