In October, 1912, I was Visiting my old native home in Lancaster County, Pa. In looking over the Steinmetz Cemetery at Schoeneck, Pa., I found the inscriptions on the various tombstones of our ancestors interred there many years ago, and I felt a great desire to have a genealogy of our ancestry, and made the remark to a niece of mine, I wish some one would write a genealogy of the Shirk fam ily. In reply she said, Uncle Henry, no one could do that better than you. Upon these encouraging words, having decided upon the undertaking, it was begun with a firm and confident determination to Spare no effort or expense to effectually accomplish the great task of connect ing the ten generations of the Shirk family, from 1665 to 1914. My dear and respected kindred of the present and future generations, I have taken great pains in diligently gathering the data of the many different branches of the family tree of the Ulrich and Anna Swar Shirk descendants, in the belief and hope that my effort in compiling this book correctly will be appreciated and prove of interest to the present and. Future generations of the Shirk family.