We are organizing our genealogies in three basic fashions–data, bios and images. This volume continues our research back in time, based strictly on our genealogical (data) history researched over the past forty years. We previously published Generation 5 (4 volumes), Generation 6 (16 volumes) and Generation 7 (32 volumes), and now we are blessed to have our 64 volumes of generation 8 going to press!

In additional to these genealogical histories, our other projects also compile the history of these families’ narratives (bios) and their photographs/documents (images). Ultimately, comprehensive compilations of all three of these histories: the genealogy, narrative, the images have and will be produced.

The first narratives were published of the paternal and maternal lines of Generation 4, covering eight couples. They have now been expounded, updated and combined and expanded to include Generations 2 through 7. What had been 40 pages and 2,000 words of biographies has now been updated to well over 110,000 words.

Our first images book, Our Own Flash & Blood published in 1996, had 75 family photos. The follow-up book, Photographic Family History published 19 years later, included 349 photos of our family and subsequently a third volume of over 700 photos. We have combined all our photos and over 500 documents into a single volume, for a total of over 1200 images. We hope you find this as educational, worthwhile and enlightening as others have.

We have over 1,600 ancestors (remember, ancestors means direct-line relatives) and over 8,000 total relatives in our paternal tree and another 300 ancestors and 4,000 relatives from the three maternal lines. We have over 2,000 cited sources and over 7,000 researched sources.

The mission of our genealogy books is then four-fold. First, to amass photographs—as a face can tell a thousand tales—as so much can be learned from them. The second goal is to document the medical background of our ancestors, so our children can lead a healthier life. The third goal is to continue to extend the lineage to link to as many relatives as possible. Our final goal leads us to the building of narratives from this amassed information, producing a readable experience of our ancestors and their lives.

Thanks to my parents, my sisters and my children for the knowledge and support; to my history teachers and professors and to Ray from Pennsylvania State Library for his early tutelage. Thanks to the amazing literary talents of Sophia Thompson, S.W. Smith, Jack Butler, Alicia Craig, Jack Smiles, Tom Sullivan, Jenny DiMario, Mason M. Smith, Talea Jurrens, Neil McQueen, and Gary Rosenberg.

Additional thanks to my hundreds of cousins, near and far, who have donated their time as well as their long-toiled family histories and to every clerk, registrar, cemetery manager, LDS employee, ancestry.com staff and others who researched in places I couldn’t visit.

Special thanks to family Mildred Moon, Gerald Thompson, Shirley Duncan, Melvalean Thompson, Bob Thompson, Bud Duncan, Ray Duncan, Lenore Zeigler, Stephany Gormley, Heather Green, Tory Shannon, Jill Thompson, Sophia Thompson, Lisa Duncan, Lisa Betts, Howard Row, Victor Hensel, Bob and Nancy Anderson, Jeanne Romberger, Bob Messerschmidt, Cindi Grimm, Dr. Jonathan Wert, Kimbra Morris, Glenn Baugher, Harry Diehl, Dolores Lease, Judy Spilsbury, and Jack Lehman. Please note the citations at the end of the book, showing how many have donated their family photos.

Thank you, grandma and grandpa, you have allowed us to see beautiful places, do wonderful things and meet amazing people. This book is truly the love of thousands.

Three great Thompson ladies

La connaissance du passe est la cle pour ourvrir l’avenir.

(Knowledge of the past is the key to opening the future)

—Marc D Thompson