In a previous genealogy book, "The Peter M Petersen Family, Our Danish Roots", I reported my findings about my paternal grandparents, both of whom had immigrated from Denmark, and their ancestors and descendants. In this book I am reporting my findings about my maternal grandparents and their ancestors and descendants. So far I have traced many of the family lines and have discovered that all of these people were here on the North American continent before the American Revolution. In other words, they were here in the American colonies before there was a United States of America. Thus this part of my family has seen the entire history of our great country. I'm sure that many others can make this same boast. I am very proud of my Danish heritage but I am equally proud of the fact my family helped shape this country from the very beginning.

In similiar fashion to the previous book, this book traces all direct ancestor lines back 4 generations starting with my maternal grandparents, Charles Andrew McAdams and Lillian May Whitcomb. Unfortunately, there are still a few unknown, thus missing, ancestors in each line. Notably one Hoyle family for Charles and three Whitcomb families for Lillian. This is a work in progress and new material will be added when and if it is found.

As was done previously, this book then proceeds forward in time 4 generations with sections for: Siblings, First Cousins, Second Cousins, and their children.

Why doesn't the title of the book have 'Charles Andrew McAdans' or 'Charles A. McAdams' instead of just 'C. A. McAdams'? To me he was just Grandpa, to close friends he was Charlie, but when he signed his name it was always C. A. McAdams, so it just seemed natural to me.

After reading the previous section the subtitle, 'Our American Roots' seems intuitively obvious.

One of the shortcomings of the previous work was that I did not report much about my grandparent's siblings. As best I can this book will remedy that oversight.

One of the advantages I have in this book is that I knew my grandparents quite well because I was part of their lives from the time I was born until they died. My parents and my brother and I were in their home hundreds of times for Sunday dinner visits and Christmases and week long stays during the summer.

Although I knew or had at least met all of my maternal grandfather's siblings, I knew nothing about my maternal grandmother's siblings, except for the fact that her sister, Clara, had died as a teenage. To my knowledge, I had never met any of my maternal grandmother's siblings. I only remember her talking about relatives in Keane, New Hampshire. However, research has uncovered things that I didn't know about my grandmother's siblings.

I had previously traced my maternal grandfather's line starting in the Carolinas, then into Central Tennessee, Western Ohio, and Northern Iowa. My maternal grandmother's family came from Massachusetts, then into New Hampshire and Vermont, before moving west to Southern Minnesota and then into Northern Iowa.

Genealogical research is not an exact science. Sometimes in order to piece together the story of a person's life, one has to attempt to read between the lines. In doing so I am sure that in my research or story telling I may have made some mistakes and/or jumped to a wrong conclusion about this or that or have simply commited typographical errors. If you, the reader, find errors in this text or have additional information you wish to share, please contact me via mail, voice, or email given at this P & M Publishing link.

There are various ways to access the marterial in this online book. The reader can start with this Preface and then click on the Next Page or Previous Page links, thus reading like a regular book page after page. There are links to all direct ancestors and descendants via the
Table of Contents,
so one can start reading at any place in the book. The following links are to Ancestor Charts for Charles and Lillian.

Charles' 4 Generation Ancestor Chart

Lillian's 4 Generation Ancestore Chart

As well as showing their ancestors, each box in each Ancestor Chart is a link to a specific individual ancestor.

The following link is to a Descendant Chart for Charles and Lillian. Each box in the Descendant Chart is a link to a specific individual descendant.

Charles and Lillian 4 Generation Descendant Chart

Plus these methods of access, there are times when the Backward and Forward links on your browser may come in handy aa well. Within the material on each individual there are links to pictures, a Family Group, and to children of each ancestoral couple and each descendant. The Family Group link provides complete detailed vital stats: birth, marriage, and death. Thus these various access methods provide considerable reading flexibility.