Miss Elizabeth Looney of Washington, D. C., is responsible for an arrangement whereby a few interested persons are providing secretarial assistance so that this Looney collection concerning early generations can be made available as fully as possible to a few who wish to continue the work. No claim is made for completeness or correctness. Where many have cooperated over half century concerning data in so many states, it cannot be otherwise.

The whole is divided into 8 parts concerning:

(1) Robert and Elizabeth Looney Family
(2) Robert Looney, Jr., Branch
(3) Adam Looney Branch
(4) Absalom Looney Branch
(5) John Looney Branch
(6) Peter Looney Branch
(7) David Looney Branch
(8) Joseph Looney Branch

Leroy W. Tilton, Compiler

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Approved procedures in making genealogical compilations should differ appropriately according to the circumstances. There are some branches of our families that have always lived in long settled communities where records were adequate and so carefully kept that the compilation of genealogies without detailed use of public records and the inclusion of definite references is considered inexcusable. Other branches of our families have followed the frontiers so closely and persistently that they sometimes have successfully evaded almost all records, including the inescapable -- death and taxes. For these cases, even tradition should be carefully and impartially recorded with the hope that it may assist in the interpretation of fragmentary evidence that may yet be found in Bibles, family letters, or other papers, probably more or less private. Between these extremes are the cases of chief importance to a large number of the inhabitants of our South, Middle West, and West who are now interested in the records, if any, relative to Mr. Average Citizen of 100 to 200 years ago.

For the majority of such citizens, especially west of the Alleghenies, there are no vital records, and they made far fewer wills than did their grandparents. Many deeds, some marriage records, and a few petitions are to be found; also some military, pension, land-grants, and bounty-land papers. Early court minutes of frontier counties and the survey books are particularly valuable. However, it is frequently the federal census on which we must chiefly rely if we are to get any publicly recorded evidence for bolstering our family

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records and traditions, or for use in our attempts to piece together with a reasonable degree of probability the few fragments of definite evidence that may be available but remain almost useless unless supported and connected.

Regardless of a paucity of "clinching documents", genealogies of frontier families will be written and genealogists should seek to establish guide lines that are as adequate as possible.

The idea that reliable genealogy can be based largely on evidence of fragmentary and circumstantial character without clinching documents for all the various links, should be examined with care and, if accepted, be used only with caution. In considering this proposal, it is pertinent to realize that no documents and no amount of evidence can really give genealogical certainty. These can mearly indicate a very high probability. It is useless to propose precise but wholly arbitrary definitions of such terms as "reasonable certainty" for use in genealogy. Even in the field of statistical probability where such a term is sometimes proposed for use in Physics or chemistry, there is no generally accepted meaning of such a concept.

It is mathematically conceivable that a large number of individually inclusive items of evidence can be interwoven in such a manner that one approximates the same high degree of probability for the whole fabric, that would have to have been achieved by several clinching documents. The precise evaluation of such probabilities from fragmentary genealogical data is quite another matter and so difficult that it would be altogether to slow and unwieldy. General estimates must be left almost entirely to the common sense and intuition of experienced genealogists.

Thus the approach may be termed quasi-statistical and the idea of a reliable genealogy seriously weak in clinching documents for

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some of the generations is sound, but the difficulties of execution are a challenge to the ability of the genealogist to make impartial and valid judgments. In the writer's opinion, then, whenever the older generations are satisfactorily documented on or near the Atlantic seaboard, it is possible by means of frontier records, properly supplemented by extensive and thorough search of the census ..records, to carry many lines through the difficult period of their intermittent westward travel. The slower they travel the more clannish their nature and *the less common the family name* the more easily the method is applied. In particular, the more complete and exhaustive is the search of the census records, the more reliable are the resulting inferences. Perhaps the most important step the be taken if possible, is long-continued active cooperation of several interested genealogists, preferably working in different sections of the country.

The most useful genealogical evidence of the census records, after name and locality of residence, is data on age. Unfortunately, the age intervals prior to 1850 are so large, for example 26 to 45 years, and the classification of 45 and upward is so indefinite that many genealogists consider these data hopeless for precise work. Moreover, when several enumerations are considered, the evidence is conflicting. When several different estimates of a birth date are possible from census records of different decades involving different age intervals, it is only for exceptional cases that all of these should be listed and discussed in detail in a genealogy. Nor is it, as a rule, advisable that the compiler select one or two estimated dates of birth and exclude all others. It is not too difficult to adopt a standard and impersonal procedure for the precise interpretation and adjustment of various and sometimes inconsistent

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census data births; and one could follow a concise and more or less standardized form in which such results might be published.

Enumerations were customarily made during the second half of a census year, and ages seem usually given as of the individual's last birth date rather than the nearest date. Thus if the stated age, or age for the group interval in question, be subtracted from the year of the census, the remainder is the most probable estimate for the year of birth and the 100% uncertainty interval (which is one-half of the group interval) extends each way from about March of that year. (Where the indefinite groups, "over 16 and "45" and upwards, " are concerned, one might take threescore and ten as a reasonable and probable limit to assume or the upper side, especially for frontier life. Thus, median ages of 45 * 2 7/ and 57# 12 could be used as probable average ages for these age groups.) If in extraordinary cases, and in the absence of other pertinent evidence, one wishes to be precise, one might estimate the date of birth from various census by weighing the several results in inverse proportion to the squares of their uncertainty intervals.

Such precision, however, is seldom if ever justified. In the writer's experience the errors present are very likely to vitiate the apparent precision. Instead, it is recommended that one find an adjusted birth year that is as consistent as possible with all the age intervals available from the various census reports and also reasonable with respect to the other evidence that may be available concerning births, marriages, etc., of all members of the families concerned. This might be called adjusting for minimum conflicts between the various data.

For some families there is little data on the dates of births, but considerable evidence concerning the relative ages of the children.

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Perhaps the marriage date for the parents is known approximately. In such cases it is often convenient to assign approximations to birth dates and clearly label them by some devices, such as "b. say 1792." In such cases, one finds only the census record, 1850 or later, and such a datum may be appropriately translated as "b. ca 1852." The recording of any year date without qualification should be made only if the writer considers that it is based on probably reliable datum or on two or more independent reports that agree and if he has not noticed an apparent conflict with other dates or date that he has accepted.

The writer has, with the assistance of numerous co-workers, compiled an account of the descendants of Robert and Elizabeth Looney of Botetourt County, Virginia. Four or five generations have been traced in migrations through 15 or more states in order to outline the history of the many branches (7) of this family that stem from Robert Jr., Adam, Absalom, John, Peter, David, and Joseph, the sons that are known to have had male progeny.

The project has been running for over half a century during which searches have been made by the writer in several state archives and many courthouses. Dozens of pension and bounty-land papers have been read, other military records searched, and thousands of pages of (unalphabetized) census enumerations have been scanned. Over a score of persons have participated in important degree, especially on their respective branches of the family. General acknowledgment should be made to Professor Rupert Taylor of Clemson, S.C. for numerous abstracts of records, critical analyses of data, and detailed suggestions; to Professor Walter O. Shriner of Terre Haute Ind.,

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For family and miscellaneous data, critical discussions, voluminous suggestions; and to Mr. Prentiss Price of Rogersville, Tenn., for numerous contributions and valuable assistance. Judge Ben F. Looney of Greenville, Texas, made available a copy of an invaluable Bible record and written accounts concerning early members of the Robert Looney Jr. Branch; similarly, the Reverend J. Millon Looney contributed and extremely valuable Bible record for the Adam Looney Branch. Coyd A. Looney, William Gaines Looney, and Mack D. Looney collected and preserves old traditions and records. Mrs. Julius Vanderheide of Sturgis, North Dakota, conducted very extensive searches that have made it possible to place many Looneys of Missouri into the Robert Looney Jr. Branch. Mrs. Elsie L. Sayers of Grundy, Va., made valuable additions in the John Looney Branch. Mrs. N. R. Francis of Winchester, Tenn., and Mrs. William H. Christian Jr. of Roanoke, Va., contributed data on descendants of Absalom 2 Looney. Others who have contributed data will be mentioned from time to time in the text of the various Branches.

The principal source of record evidence for generations 1 and 2 is Judge Lyman Chalkley's voluminous abstracts of the Records of Augusta County. These books are well indexed and page citations will not be given here. Other references will often be cited in the text. Admittedly the evidence for many relationships remains circumstantial even if plausible. The inclusion of numerous reports, statements, etc., does not necessarily imply full acceptance but rather possible value worth preserving for later consideration, and many tentative relationships are suggested merely as such. The data presented are known to be only a part of that which can be found and it is inevitable that many errors should be made in a cooperative undertaking of such scope. The results are made public in order

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that further searches by others may be facilitated.

The limited scope of this edition does not permit inclusion of all data that has reached the compiler. Efforts will be made to preserve all unused notes and records so they may be available for future use. ...

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