[Ancestral Charts of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Edwards]

Pair of print blocks showing the ancestral tree of a prominent New England family.

This interesting pair of print blocks were used to illustrate the first edition of Maurice Dwight Edwards’ genealogical work, Richard Edwards and his wife Catherine Pond May : their ancestors, lives and descendants. The glowing family history was published in St. Paul by the Webb Publishing Company in 1931, with the blocks likely created shortly beforehand.

Each chart shows the family tree of Richard Edwards and his wife Catherine May Pond, each of whom was apparently descended from historical figures like John Brown and Governor Thomas Dudley. Both men, incredulously, are depicted in the same generational branch despite having lived two centuries apart!