William Hurley continues to excavate quality research materials for those readers interested in their family origins in this volume devoted to the progeny of the Rabbitt name. Though he found that the Rabbitt clan was not as large as the subjects of his prior volumes, they intermarried with many of the oldest families in Montgomery County, the result being the inclusion of numerous surnames like Welsh, Carroll, Thrift, Waters, Baker, Thompson, Boswell, and Kemp into the family line. Beginning with William Rabbitt (born 1693), Hurley traces the name through his sole son John Thomas Rabbit, and subsequently his children, John Thomas Jr., Henry Rabbitt and Mary Rabbitt. He follows these lines to the present with information about births, deaths, marriages, occupations, and when available, curious bits of personal information that survive through generations in the form of family anecdotes.
This kind of personalizing of the hard data he collects is characteristic of Mr. Hurley’s work and gives his readers another interesting perspective from which to explore their roots. Quick to point out when his sources conflict or are in obvious error, Mr. Hurley’s thorough and methodic presentation is assurance that what he provides is the most accurate data available from the numerous references he acknowledges in his bibliography. His final chapter covers miscellaneous Rabbitt family members, and includes small bits of information relative to people who carried the surname either by birth or marriage but otherwise cannot be connected to the collective history. A surname index also provides a birth, death, or marriage date to help distinguish between members with the same name.
William Neal Hurley, Jr.
(2001), 2006, 5½x8½, paper, index, 134 pp.
ISBN: 9780788418570
101-H1857
