The Rhode Island Genealogical Society is happy to announce that a revised version of A Crandall Family Reader, a compilation of recent scholarship on the immigrant ancestor and his descendants, is just off the press. Research into the life and family of John Crandall that has been dominated since 1949 by John Cortland Crandall’s Elder John Crandall of Rhode Island and His Descendants. Valuable as that book has been, genealogical standards and tools have evolved, and much excellent work has been published in different journals since the turn of the 21st century. The new material has been difficult to find. A Crandall Family Reader contains all the updates on John Crandall and his descendants in one place, carefully indexed. The rationale for changes to the genealogy in Elder John Crandall and derivative sites on the internet is presented. This new book features Paul Gifford’s newly revised article on the origins of the Crandall family in England as well as a four-part series of articles on the immigrant John Crandall’s life with considerable detail on his children. We include a transcription of Samuel Hubbard’s diary, a source that provides some of the best information on those early days in Newport and Westerly, Rhode Island. In one chapter, Jeff Howe describes how he found that a granddaughter of John Crandall fit in neatly as a lost wife in his Church family. Moving on to later generations, readers will find an article on Mintas Crandall, a black Revolutionary War soldier, and Joseph Crandall from upstate New York, who served briefly in the War of 1812. Joseph leads to his son, Adirondack guide Christopher Columbus Crandall whose long-suffering wife is studied. A new article on Judith Harbold’s Civil War soldier great-grandfather rounds out the genealogy. It is all wrapped up with Earl P. Crandall’s classic piece on the Crandall Coat of Arms and his pet project to discredit the idea that Crandalls ever had a crest at all.
This book was edited by Cherry Fletcher Bamberg, genealogist and editor of Rhode Island Roots where many of the articles first appeared. Updates were again reviewed, reformatted, and coordinated. This handsome book is a giant step forward in research into the Crandalls and allied families. We hope that you enjoy it.
