The purpose of this book is to record the probable ancestry, the history and the descendants of John Willcockson, who married Sarah Boone, sister of the famous pioneer, Daniel Boone, and his younger brother, George Willcockson and one Isaac Willcockson, believed to be another brother.

          Mr. and Mrs. John Templeton Doneghy (Mary McKinley Craddock, a descendant of George Willcockson) entered into wide correspondence as early as 1915 to find the immigrant ancestor. This author has read their correspondence in the McCubbins manuscript files, preserved in the Memorial Room of the Public Library, Salisbury, Rowan Co., N. C. and in manuscript files of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, and of the Society of Friends files, Philadelphia, Penn. Her ancestral notes were inherited by two descendants and all papers were carefully studied in 1957 to find proof of the ancestors eventually given in her lineage as found in Burke's "Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, including American Families with British Ancestry." England. 1939. p. 2974, wherein she stated that John Willcockson was the son of George Willcockson, the son of John Willcockson of Cossal, Notts, England. Her papers left no references for proof, nor is any proof given in the account in Burke's.

         The author has spent four years in research and correspondence. The research included a week's stay in Rowan Co., N. C., where all marriages, wills, deeds and tax records were studied and the vast collection of manuscript files of a professional genealogist, the late Mrs. McCubbins, were searched meticulously. Several conferences were held with the North Carolina genealogist, W. D. Kizziah of Salisbury, who was Recorder for thirty-five years and very familiar with records in that and surrounding counties.

          Research by the author was extensive in the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the D. A. R. Library, the Virginia Archives, Virginia Historical Society, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Archives of the City and County of Philadelphia, the Society of Friends Library in Philadelphia, New York Public Library, Connecticut Historical Society, New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston and Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University. Hundreds of books from Yale were carefully studied at home.

          Research for the author has been completed on the records of Ashe Co. and Wilkes Co., N. C., Barren, Green, Calloway, Nelson, Shelby, Clark and Estill counties, Ky. and hundreds of Census records of counties in Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. Census records relating to proven descendants appear throughout the text; others are given in "Connections Unknown."

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