Although it contains entries for area residents of national importance, such as Emily Howland, Thomas Mott Osborne, William Henry Seward and Harriet Tubman, the user should be aware that the reference tool, Biography and Genealogy Master Index, found in most large libraries, will locate a number of biographical sketches of national figures in titles not indexed here. And one should also keep in mind that this index indexes only biographical sketches. Thus, in the history volumes indexed there may well be mentions of various individuals, sometimes lengthy, that do not qualify as biographical sketches and thus were not indexed.

In general, each line is as full as possible from the available information: name, dates, codes for the information found (biographical sketch and/or illustration), code for the book, and page. They are arranged in alphabetical order; but as my computer program would only do three simultaneous sorts I could not further arrange the book codes in chronological order under each individual as I had initially hoped. Also, the computer sorted blank spaces last, thus the name Smith, John appears after Smith, John Henry. When there were four or more entries for the same individual I edited the entries to bring the name and dates to the fullest form. I also did some silent editing to work through inconsistencies in entries; those that I could not work through were left. Thus in a few cases there are, for example, slightly different birthdates for what is obviously the same person but I could not establish which was the correct date.

If an entry continues on several pages, only the first page of the entry is given. In a few cases, when the illustration was several generations removed from the original, it was difficult to tell whether the original was, say, an engraving or a photograph. In such cases, the best possible guess was made. Group photographs containing several people were indexed; those containing many people were not.

Codes Used For Information Found in Book:

• BIOG - Biographical Sketch
• D - Drawing
• E - Engraving
• GP - Group Photograph
• P - Photograph
• PA - Painting
• S - Statue

Two lists of the titles indexed follow this preface. The first is arranged by author/main entry and the second by the code for the book. If there is any special information about what has been indexed in a particular title, it is discussed with the entry for the title.

I wish to thank Stephen Erskine and Mary Gilmore of the Seymour Library, Auburn, for their help and suggestions in the compilation of the index.

It is my hope that this index will lead researchers to the wealth of often little-known and otherwise unindexed sources in their quest for biographical and pictorial information on Cayuga Countians and that any errors that may have crept into the index in its various stages of compilation will not greatly affect its usefulness.

I dedicate this work to my parents: Elizabeth Lyon Kabelac, a native of Cayuga County, and Edward Kabelac, a resident of Cayuga County for over 45 years.

Karl Sanford Kabelac
Rochester, New York
May 1999