INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION

by Robert Autry Brooks, Co-Editor

This represents the third publication of the mountain of Autry genealogy and history collected by Vivian Mayo Bundy over a period of 60 years. For those not familiar with the earlier publications, now out of print, the first edition plus revision was MEET OUR ANCESTORS, Culbreth, Autry, Maxwell-Bundy, Winslow, Henly and allied families, 1978 and 1980; the second was THE DESCENDANTS OF NEIL CULBRETH OF SAMPSON COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, AND ALLIED FAMILIES, 1982; and the third was THE DESCENDANTS OF NEIL CULBRETH OF SAMPSON COUNTY AND CORNELIUS AUTRY OF EDGECOMBE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, AND ALLIED FAMILIES, 1990. Dr. Bundy vowed the last book would be his swan song, but I encouraged him to publish one more edition in order to include additional material which had come to us about this extended family. Otherwise, we would lose much of the 250 year history of the Autry descendants as they filled the country from the East Coast to the West arid beyond. I was fortunately naive as to how much work such an effort entails.

One accepts that a publication of genealogy and family history is obsolete the day it is printed because of births, deaths and corrections. There are other excellent publications expanding on the individual families and children of Cornelius Autry and some of these are referred to in appropriate chapters. Furthermore, the family has profited in recent years by having the Autrey-Autry-Autery Family Association founded by Hector Ed Autry in 1986 to serve in the collection, preservation and publication of our family history. The Association publishes a quarterly bulletin and maintains a family record archives. The Bulletin is an ideal medium to publish pertinent family history, pictures, documentation and questions that we could not accommodate.

Genealogists are always rightly concerned with documentation and corroboration of data. In this book, we have not attempted to document the data submitted but have tried to give the name of the person submitting the data when known. Some of these wonderful cousins have now passed on and we remember them with grateful hearts. We occasionally note areas of argument or different interpretation where these are brought to our attention. These are often the most intriguing to all of us. At the least, the data should enable one to more easily go back and corroborate individual family history from original source documents.

Cousin Mayo still receives requests for his previous books. One goal is to place this publication in family history libraries where it can be made widely available, after this edition is out of print and the editors are out of earthly time. We have not copyrighted this publication so it can be copied as desired by readers. We would appreciate acknowledgement when the book is quoted.