PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
It has now been more than six years since Mary Charlotte was promoted to heaven, and the same time since
the second edition was published. I am fast reaching the time of life when the Lord may call me any day.
So much has happened to me, and to the rest of the extended family, in those six years that those events
and photos should be collected and published. Also technology has advanced, and it is now possible to
improve the photos of the original book. A new medium for permanent recording has been perfected -- the
DVD -- which can contain many times the material than a reasonably sized book, and the reproduction costs
are one-tenth as great.
Hence the decision early this year to edit the second edition, find and include relevant photographs of
people and events, and add the history of these last six years. It has turned out to be a formidable
undertaking, but the results are much more attractive than the earlier editions.
A number of new features have been added, and old ones improved. I have appended material that may be of
interest to a few, but not likely to the majority of readers. The addition of many new photographs has
provided a means of watching each person grow from the time of first mention to the present or time of
death. All group pictures have their individuals identified (in most instances), so that future
generations can see what their forebears looked like. New material from the extended family has been
included for the earlier time span as well as the new one. One special chapter has been devoted to
exploits of individual family groups, and another chapter shows the fourth generation from my parents.
This edition has enabled me to show my Mitchell-derived relatives once again what can happen in a
person’s life when he or she allows God to have a say in one’s lifestyle. God has certainly continued
to work in my life, and I have tried to show just how. He continues to be the all-gracious and
all-loving God most of us acknowledge Him to be, but He is also all-righteous and all-just. He will
and does forgive sins but He will not overlook them. We must approach Him with repentant hearts if we
seek that forgiveness. This I have learned over and over again, but I have yet to find Him unwilling to
forgive when I meet His conditions of a humble and contrite heart.
You can easily pick and choose what you want to read, and even print out short sections of special
interest. The addition of new photographs should increase the interest of the passages where they have
been added, and new family materials such as weddings and local reunions have been inserted in their
chronological sequence.
My purpose has been to create a family as well as a personal history, so that the DVD can be updated in
the years ahead, after those of us who prepared the first DVD have long gone.
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