Across Four Centuries

This chronicle traces the centuries-long saga of the Albin family, complete with struggle, triumph and tragedy of subsequent Albin generations - all descendants of William Albin - through four different centuries, from approximately 1620 to 1990, in three different countries on two continents. The Albins portrayed in this narrative generally lacked fame and wealth; however, many were adventurous, and most were industrious as they sought to make a better life for themselves and their children. The unanticipated voyage of four young Albin orphans (James Albin III, Elizabeth Albin, John Albin and William Albin) from Ireland to America in the early 1720s altered the family chronicle forever. One of these orphans, William Albin, was the author's fifth great grandfather. On a broader scale, once these four took their first uncertain steps on English colonial soil in southeastern Pennsylvania, they and their successors played an unheralded, yet meaningful role in the development of a maturing
colonial America and then later in the fabric of the expanding United States. Their gradual, decades-long, westward shift paralleled that of a young America as it expanded its own borders westward during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Appendices, a bibliography, facsimile reprints of original documents and photographs, and maps enhance the text.