Excerpt from Genealogy and History of the Clay Family

In writing this Genealogy and History of the New Hampshire branch of the Clay family, the author has not adopted any regular plan or system usually followed in works of this kind. He looked over quite a number of Genealogies, but found none of them alike. The plan he finally adopted is a little different from any of them.

He had merely gone on collecting data, records and historical facts and jotting them down for several years, without any real in tention of completing and printing them. He was in hopes after a year or two of work in this line, to find some relative among the Clays who would be interested in this Genealogy work, to go ahead and assist in getting data and records. Most all were willing to tell what they knew, but none cared to assist in editing his work.

It will be noticed that the writer has given most of the space in this history to the descendants of Timothy Clay. While this Genealogy goes back to those who landed in Salem in an early day, it merely gives a short account of them down to the settlement in Chester, N. H.

Very little is known or could be written about Jonas Clay, or his son, John, the father of Timothy Clay.

While we are all anxious to know who our first ancestors were, we are still more interested in the last two or three generations of our family.

Knowing that I could not make a complete record of the Clays dating back to Salem, I have put in data and records enough so that all of the other branches of the family who know anything about their grandfather will have no trouble in tracing their line back to Salem.

As to the album part of this book. At first I planned to put in just a few of the older descendants of our grandfathers, but later concluded to let all the Clays who would take the trouble to send me their photograph, to have them put in the history.

I have written up and put in this history a Genealogy of the Lawson family. It will be remembered that Timothy Clay married Rhoda Lawson. And the Genealogy of the Balch family, as my father married Louisa M. Balch. Also the Stevens Genealogy, from which on the maternal side some of our branches descended.

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