Table Of Content

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Boston Public Library http://www.archive.org/details/300yearsofjoseph01olin DO Yearn of Joseph Olin and His Descendants Volume I DO Towm of Joseph Olin and His Descendants Volume I Warren G. Olin of Joseph Olin and His Descendants Volume I Author: Warren G. Olin, Family Historian Editor: Ann Joyce Olin Powell Published By: OLIN Family Copyright: 1996 — All rights unreserved for family and researchers. CS7/ Library of Congress Catalog Number: 96-68406 f V.I ISBN 0-9651495-0-1 \(\(\ ( q Manufactured in the United States of America on acid-Free paper 500 First Edition Typesetting/Graphic Design/ Camera-Ready Material: Type-O-Graphics Endwell, NY Printing Company: The Maple- Vail Book Manufacturing Group York, PA Editor's Note *When children ask, "Where did I come from?" their parents may suck in their breath, assuming the child is seeking information on the origin of his/her life. As we grow older, we become much too sophisticated to ask such a question. But perhaps we're missing something. Life did not just begin with us, or our parents, or our grandparents, or even with their parents. We really should ask, "Where did we come from? How did our world come to be as it is today? What influences have helped to make us what we are and what our children are likely to be?" The inspiration for Warren Olin to write this book, for me to edit it, and for our siblings to help support it, was, of course, our Dad, George O. Olin. He accumulated genealogical information over the years because he was curious to know his family and who came before. His difficult and somehow heroic life transferred to us a respect and reverence for family, love, loyalty, truth, and honor, all supported by our mother, Leona Ruland Olin. We children grew up with a sense that family was special and that each of us should do our best to make the world a little better than we found it. That is the story of all the Olins — ordinary people just doing their best to make things a little better. Pleased and excited that this ambitious project was actually coming to fruition, I was concerned about Warren's plan to write a readable book. His extensive research should be invaluable to future genealogists and historians. He systematically uncovered previously undocumented information regarding the "missing link" generation which stymied earlier research in the Joseph branch of the John OLIN Family. Warren also compiled and analyzed all of the traditions, theories and new information on the country of origin of John Olin. And just as carefully, Warren traced as many families as possible through all of their generations to the present. I worried that foregoing footnotes and adding some fiction might compromise the credibility of his Herculean work. At the same time, I understood Warren's intention that this book be read and enjoyed. Without creating fables, Warren has carefully used historically relevant fiction to help the reader understand the 18th and 19th centuries and how people lived. The effect is to see our ancestors as the real people they were. Often as I edited, I found myself so caught up in their lives that I had to go back a page or two to do my job. Identifying where fiction has been used should pose little problem for true historians, and sources are listed for serious researchers without disturbing the text. The outcome is a readable book whether you are an Olin, related to one, or not. My woriry relieved, it is a pleasure to be associated with this work. Now the Joseph branch of the John OLIN Family can know from where it came. "To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root." — Chinese Proverb