Excerpt from The Gladding Book: Being an Historical Record and Genealogical Chart of the Gladdding Family, With Accounts of the Family Reunions of 1890 and 1900, at Bristol, R. I., The Gladdings' American Ancestral Home A cause that will unite the descendants of a common ancestor is commendable. A reunion tends to bring about this result inas much as it brings together a goodly number of people of one blood, and bearing the same name. In a gathering of this kind, a pleas urable fraternization at once springs up, creates a union and con centration of thought and action, 1nd stimulates a laudable pride in their common name - a desire to elevate each member - to banish, at least for the present, any unpleasantness that may exist in the fam ily. It is a fruitful source for renewing old acquaintances, reviving former family ties, and also for making pleasurable new acquaint ances, for at such gatherings they learn their true relations one to another. Grandfather's old bible, scraps of poetry, many old let ters, and relies that have so quietly rested in the old red chest, well covered with dust in the garret, are brought out and their contents well studied. Such information, at a reunion, brought together by various members, becomes very interesting and profitable, and tends to unite. Blood is thicker than water. In union there is strength. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.