"Pemberton Pedigrees" Reissued

This post follows on from one I wrote nearly three years ago, "Going Back to Someone's Roots," about how I'd helped to photograph Pemberton Pedigrees, an old book of genealogical charts of various people called Pemberton. After much work, the Pemberton Family World Wide is ready to reissue the book to assist anyone who's researching a family connection to a Pemberton.

The following is an announcement from Jackson Pemberton, the president of Pemberton Family World Wide, sent on 22nd December 2014.

Dear PFWW Member,

First let me wish you all a Happy Christmas (or Merry Christmas for those of us in the US). I hope you and your loved ones are having a lovely time making the last preparations for the holidays.

Then I want to thank all those who made this announcement possible: Herbert Pemberton of Blackpool, England, and his son Steven who carefully photographed an entire edition (more than 140 pages); Mike Spier of Seabeck, Washington, USA, and Chris Pemberton of Redditch, England, who helped tidy up the charts and assisted with the conversion of the text pages to searchable text, and Charlet Pemberton of Fairview, Utah, USA, who assisted me with the tedious task of proofreading the pedigree charts.

Today the Pemberton Family World Wide is pleased to announce that the publication of the famous book, Pemberton Pedigrees, is coming online as you read this email. The first half of the book is already published on the PFWW.org website and the remainder of it will be released throughout the remainder of the day. We choose today in commemoration of the passing of Major-General Robert Charles Boileau Pemberton (1834 - December 22, 1914), the man who spent much of his retirement years writing letters, visiting many archives, searching for as much information as possible on the Pemberton family. He compiled numerous notes while constructing 40 pedigree charts for the Pembertons of the world.

Please notice that the entire book is being reissued online with all of the text pages of notes, the indices, etc.; all, that is, EXCEPT the charts themselves. The charts are only available to members of record who have paid dues before today. They were promised a DVD copy and they will receive one as soon as it is ready - early January, 2015. DVD copies of the entire book will also be available for purchase in the Pemberton Market on the PFWW.org website. Furthermore, members who pay dues at the "Family Patron" level or higher will also receive a copy of the book on DVD.

The latest edition of our newsletter, the Pemberton Post will also "come off the press" within a few days so look for that in your inbox. It will contain a lot of details about the Pemberton Pedigrees 2014 edition including insights the old book and new DNA studies reveal, the story of the production of the 2014 edition and pictures of the major volunteers who made this reissue possible.

To see what is already published online, just look for the Pemberton Pedigrees book in the Card Catalogue to Soft Copies, within the Pemberton Family History Library on the PFWW.org website. You'll find it in the Family History section of the green menu on the left of any page of the website.

The editors are still looking for the notes that Major-General R C B Pemberton, the compiler of the charts, wrote while he was putting the book together. They have reason to believe that the notes passed to his son, the Reverend Robert Pemberton, but his will makes no mention of them. If you know anything about the notes or what happened to them, please comment below.