| We have been told that J. Gilbert Lay gathered material for this book by traveling from town to town. He personally transcribed most of the courthouse records included in the book. He made contact with locals who had the surname Lay, Leigh, etc and sent out questionnaires, asking for their Lay family history. Many families responded. Some of their histories were based on bible records, and carefully maintained family records. Others were based on memory, and oral history. J. Gilbert Lay compiled it all to make Lay Family Genealogy. |
| The difficult task of republishing Lay Family Genealogy by J. Gilbert Lay has been accomplished only with the help of many volunteers from the Lay Family Genealogical Association. It is the hope of the LFGA that this book will be valued, for the immense amount of Lay research it contains, and the heroic effort made by J. Gilbert Lay to research, compile, and home publish such a voluminous book in a day before computers. It is only because the book is no longer available in print, that such a task was even considered. It is our hope that future generations of genealogical researchers will benefit from this book as we have. |
| It is with trepidation that we broach the subject of accuracy, documentation, and sources. This book was written before the present standards of genealogy were widely accepted. Sources are not given in many cases. It contains errors and omissions in research. However, it is still the most valuable tool for Lay research that thas ever been compiled. It furnishes the careful researcher with the tools (names, geographical locations, dates, etc.) to confirm or deny the validity of the material. As with all secondary sources, be wary, the data should be verified against the primary or original records to establish the truth. |
| Our apologies to those who would have preferred us to make revisions. Such revisions are worthy goal, but it is not the goal we originally adoped. This is the original book, changed only in format, with minor changes where spelling errors were obvious. You will note the original page numbers in the margin, to help in refernces. We hope to publish an addendum in the future, in which we will address correctons with their sources and documentaion. |
| PREFACE |