Editor's Note

The following article represents the first of a new, occasional series entitled "Alabama Families." Herbert James Lewis's account of the lives of prominent members of the Sterrett family demonstrates how personal and family history can reflect and complicate larger narratives about the past. Readers will discover, through the lives of David, Alphonso, Sally (Tate), R. H., and Major Dowell Sterrett, how certain individuals navigated the rapid changes that marked Alabama history from statehood through the Civil War. In the process, readers will come to understand how a story that is inherently personal can broaden perspectives and contribute to the study of the past.

The editors envision this series as an opportunity to apply rigorous historical research and editorial standards to a subject, family history, long considered distinct from the practice of academic scholarship. In recent years, however, scholars have to come to appreciate the ways in which the practices of genealogists---scouring archival sources, making sense of demographic data, evaluating the legitimacy of documents---reflect the practices of historical researchers. Moreover, in tracing familial stories across space and time, family historians provide nuance and complexity to larger, more traditional histories.