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the present t ime, we feel safe in saying that whereverthere is a good fight, there will doubtless be someone ofthe name par t ic ipat ing, i f not promot ing the combat .This qual i ty is not par t icular ly admirable, perhaps , butthat 's the way they are, and we have therefore s t ressedthis motif in our story.

"We can forgive mistakes, but not even God canforgive th e ha ng erb ac k," w rote Stevenson fur ther . Ou rpeople w ere nev er ha ng erb ack s . They lived ful l l ive s :they worked and fought , loved and marr ied, moved tofar-dis tant places , rea red famil ies , accu m ulated possessions, and af ter a while lay down and died, t rus t ing(ra th er truc ule ntly ) in God. H e no doubx ha s forgiventhem th e hum an mis takes they m ade . Let us do l ikewise as we read their s tory.

ALTIZER GENEALOGICAL CHARTThe foundat ion of this char t was a record wri t tenby Da niel M. A lt izer , of Cam bria, V a. W hen alm ostseventy he l is ted 205 persons in their relationshipentirely from m em ory. His rec ord w as in th e form ofconcentric circles, each containing the names of onegen erat ion. W e hav e had to m ak e corrections in onlya few instances , but many addit ions have been made bythe means given in the foreword.

Yet even this long l is t represents only about one-s ixteenth of Em era A lt izer 's desce nda nts . M orton inhis History of Rockbridge County says:"Posterity in the female l ine tends togrow in a more rapid rat io than in the malel ine. If a certain John Smith has two sonsand two daughters (and the same averagerule holds for later generat ions) then outof the 256 great great grandchildren onlysixteen would be Smiths."