Christmas 2006, my son Nathan said, "What I wish I had are copies of all the family stories."

Until that moment it had never dawned upon me that my children didn't have ready access to all of the priceless family stories that are our heritage.  These are my treasures.  My children have bits and pieces, and have probably heard or read most of the stories sometime in their lives; but they don't have copies so that they can sit down and read the stories to their own children.

Nathan's comment pointed out a problem that needed to be fixed.

This collection of stories and writings includes nearly everything by and about our ancestors of which I'm aware.  Its purpose is to acquaint all of our descendants with their progenitors.  As I've researched their lives I have been impressed with what good people they were.  Every one of them lived the best life he or she could.  I, therefore, decided to name this collection A Noble Heritage, because that is what our children have.

I hope that these stories will be read and reread by each one of our posterity.  They will thereby come to know their ever-so-great grandparents in a very personal way.  I'm grateful for each of the many authors who took the trouble to write.  Because they did, I know and love these people, and will be excited to meet them in a coming day.

As our children and grandchildren read these stories, I'm sure that they'll also be glad that some of their ancestors took the time to write.  My hope is that each of our posterity will be inspired to record their own lives and stories so that a hundred years from now they themselves will be something more than just a name and a date on a page.

— James E. Kerns