The records in this book represent some fifteen years of inter mittent searching and correspondence. In the hundreds of names and dates, which have been copied and re-copied, there are doubt less errors, some of which have already been discovered and noted in the list of Additions and Corrections at the end of the work. No attempt has been made to trace the Blish lines beyond the shores of America, and while I have examined all known sources of information, I make do claim that the history is full. A few, whose lines are incomplete, are included for future reference.