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by Francis Bazley Lee (Editor)
Around the turn of the last century the Lewis Publishing Company of New York City perfected a formula for presenting and preserving the genealogies/biographies of eminent or successful citizens throughout much of the Eastern half of the United States. The Lewis technique was to employ a credible authority, who would himself supervise a stable of writers and editors, in the task of garnering and editing biographical/genealogical material, including photographs, from hundreds of subjects whose lives and family histories fell within the geographical range of a particular publishing project, be it local, statewide, or regional. Lewis Publishing Company would eventually publish numerous multi-volume mugbooks (so-called because of their subjects' portraits), a number of which have been reprinted by Clearfield Company, including this publication. This four-volume work begins with an informative historical essay that focuses upon the founding of New Jersey and life and institutions there during the colonial period. Thereafter the format is similar to other Lewis Publishing Company mug books. Mr. Lee and company have assembled nearly 1,000 illustrated essays devoted to well established families resident throughout New Jersey. Many of the essays begin with an explanation of the geographical origin or derivation of the family's surname, with a number of them going back to the 16th or 17th century. The sketches then trace the line forward from the oldest known ancestor to the principal subject of the essay. This is followed by a detailed biography of that person, often with his photo, as well as an enumeration of collateral lines related to the principal subject. The index at the back of the final volume identifies some 4,800 descendants of the main families listed below, which, in the aggregate, constitute, arguably, the greatest collection of New Jersey genealogies in a single place.
