Tales of Princes Past

Inspired by its author's wish to transmit the almost-extinct oral histories of yesteryear to her grandchildren and to generations as yet unborn, this book traces the migration of her ancestors from the Old World to the New during the greatest and most consequential mass migration in the history of humankind. And whereas everyone's family has a past full of interesting and exciting stories, the Prince Family of Flatbush was unusual because their New World saga began early in the history of the United States. It started in Brooklyn in 1657 and continued to unfold there-at least until the family migrated, in the 1920s, to the then-booming industrial stronghold of Cleveland-through 3 1/2 centuries of unimaginable upheaval and change. It was written by Marjorie Anne Prince, an eleventh generation member of the family since its migration from Holland and its inevitable intermarriages with families from France and England. Deeply immersed in the borough's passions and intrigues, the Princes built homesteads, started businesses, lost husbands or wives and babies, married, remarried, and died, always striving for lives filled with purpose and joy. Each of them maneuvered as adroitly as he or she could through the confusing landscapes of North America since its annexation and colonization. Although this story focuses on this particular family's collective journey, it honors, by implication, the experiences of hundreds of thousands of equivalent families during their first generations in the uncharted and usually terrifying New World.