Hi, Rooters, I know that many of you are already aware of the many shortcomings of Robert Piercy Dow's "The Book of Dow." If you will note, Bill Teschek and I did not refer to it for any of the scores of DOWs who are included in Hampton's genealogy database. It was perhaps unfair of me to put George Sanborn on the spot with my cryptic criticism of the book. He may not want to condone my blunt style. :-) Here, however, is a quote from his extensive article titled, "Joseph Dow's Second Wife, and the Byfield Crew," which appeared in the opening "chapter" in July 1990 at vol. 7, pg. 98, of The New Hampshire Genealogical Record": "In his massive tome, The Book of Dow (Rutland, Vt.: The Tuttle Company, 1929, hereinafter The Book of Dow), Mr. Dow wrote a long introduction in which he explained how his book came to be and in which he acknowledged the efforts of other Dow genealogists. He admitted to the shortcomings of the book, and lamented the many unplaced Dows. Unfortunately, however, he made many misassignments of individuals in the book, frequently referring to his placement of children as "wild guesses," and also insisted on the accuracy of other placements which are demonstrably erroneous. To make matters worse, he chose a most bizzare and cumbersome 'numbering' system, actually using letters of the alphabet, which peculiar and unwieldy method I dubbed many years ago as the 'abracadabra system,' which also gives one an idea of how reliable and well resarched (sic) the lineages in the book are. ... [2 sentences omitted] ... The fact that he included in the book the first good treatment of the English ancestry of Henry Dow, and an interesting genealogy of one half of the Nudd family, does not excuse his careless and irresponsible treatment of the American Dows." George Sanborn's series of articles which appeared in the NHGR, I believe, through the beginning of 1993 or the end of 1992, were used as a source for the Hampton's DOWs which appear in Bill Teschek's many pages. -- Dick Marston, Rockingham County, NH, GenWeb County Coordinator, [ http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/1706/ ]; Administrator: NHMERRIM, NHROCKIN and MARSTON mail lists