Like Alfred Tennnyson's babbling brook, mankind perpetuates itself with a purpose. We are as billions of drops of water that flow into the shimmering river of life, and out again through the channel of death, leading to the beautiful sea of eternal life.

The years between the beginning and the end are filled with unrest and constant motion. A brook never stops; neither can we. We must go on and on, working and wondering, populating the earth with children, and raising them to efficiently replace us.

In the Bible is recorded the descending genealogy from Adam and Eve to Charlemagne - King Charles the Great of France (742-814), and his son Louis the Pious. Soon after, the direct family line is obliterated by the marks of time, and it disappeared.

Ever since, man has diligently searched for this mysterious missing link between himself and the first human beings - attempting to solve the mystery of life:

Who am I? he asks himself . . . Where did I come from? . . . What is the source from which I spring? . . . Where am I going? . . . Why am I as I am?

This, then, is the story of the 8 generations of the Waste family - as far back into the faded past as we can go. We've touched the year of 1720, and stand ready to reach out even further.

Tributaries of the Waste family have cascaded over hills and through valleys, flowing westward from Massachusetts to California. This, too, is the story of the Waste people in America and those times in which they lived - peace and war, depression and prosperity, heartbreak and happiness.

I am Robert W. Waste. I am proud to introduce my forefathers:

Charles N. Waste (1720 - 1765), my 4th great grandfather.

Bezaleel Waste, Sr. (1742-1818), my 3rd great grandfather.

Bezaleel Waste, Jr. (1772-1841), my 2nd great grandfather.

Ira Charles Waste (1795-1873), my great grandfather.

John Jackson Waste (1835-1882), my grandfather.

John Morton Waste (1877-1959), my father, to whom this Book is dedicated.