This is a work of such incredible detail that it is thought to have elevated genealogy to an exact science. It is the definitive statement on the ancestry and relationships of 35,000 residents of eighteenth-century New Haven, Connecticut, and it is the only known publication which succeeds in treating every family of an entire New England region. All eight volumes deal with the families of the ancient town of New Haven and the towns set off from it: Hamden, Bethany, Woodbridge, East Haven, North Haven, and West Haven. Lines are brought down to the heads of families cited in the 1790 Census and include the generation born between 1790 and 1800, the aim being to provide every record of birth or baptism up to the year 1800, every record of marriage to 1810, and every record of death of individuals born before 1800. Apart from the data gathered from church records and court records, this work also draws on the records of towns and districts outside the New Haven area. The early Wallingford and Cheshire families, for example, which for the most part were of New Haven origin, are given completely to 1780, and in many instances to 1800.