To any and all Ransoms and Descendants of Ransoms:

Since January of 1901, when he reached the age of sixty years, the undersigned has given all of his time to the compilation of a genealogical record designed to include all Ransoms who have lived in America and all descendants of such Ransoms bearing that or other surnames, down to the babe last born; that he has been diligent and measurably successful is attested by the fact that, as the result of the first six years of his work on the record, he had on January 1st, 1907, record of more than thirty-five thousand such Ransoms and descendants. If his life and health are spared, he confidently hopes to make the number of names on the record more than one hundred thousand.

In the event of the death or disability of the writer before the completion of the work, all of his manuscript, carefully and completely indexed, and all of the correspondence and records from which it has been compiled, will be deposited with some public institution in Buffalo, having a Genealogical Department, probably the Grosvenor Library, where it will be properly cared for and remain open to all comers.

IT IS DESIRED to have Day, Month and Year of Births, Marriages and Deaths, and the year of each removal of family from place to place, with name of town, village or city, and ITS COUNTY, and State in each case; also to have full Baptismal names of each person named -- including Full Middle Name wherever there is one.

IT IS ALSO DESIRED to have terse notes on pioneer enterprise or notable achievements also on college degrees and on public or quasi-public service, civil or military, with dates of service and name of organization in which service was rendered.

IT IS ESPECIALLY DESIRED to have full verbatim copies of any bible records or other written records accessable to correspondents, and in such cases any doubt as to the accuracy of the original should be separately expressed, leaving the copy just like the record from which it is made, errors and all. In all cases, please say who wrote the original if you know that fact. The older the record the more it is valued.

Please use care in writing names of persons, bearing in mind that the compiler of the record is not as familiar with them as you are, and do not use nicknames.

Your friendly aid is respectfully solicited.

JOHN E. RANSOM,

26 West Avenue, Buffalo, N. Y.

Life Member, Buffalo Library; Member Buffalo Historical Society and Member Buffalo Genealogical Society.