Annals of our Forebearers

"David Joyce's latest book gives a sprightly look at the Colonial history of one family, delivered with the immediacy of a letter from home. Imagine you have discovered a trunk in the attic. Having gotten it open and cleared away the dust, you get a glimpse of the family story that you had never known." -Editor, Journal of the Genealogical Society of Rockingham and Stokes Counties, North Carolina When Alexander Joyce, a Scots-Irish settler, writes to his children on November 6, 1777, he is nearing his death. Now living in Guilford County, North Carolina, he is eager to tell his family about the Joyce family history. From his birth in County Down, Ireland, to his arrival in Colonial Virginia and Pennsylvania, he has much to share. Leaving Ireland during the Year of the Slaughter, Alexander survived famine, starvation, and political and religious persecution. But now, as he faces the last years of his life, he wishes to educate his relatives about the family origins from Banff, Scotland, and about his journey to the New World.