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Dr. Bosworth's treatise on Randolph County is fairly evenly divided between local history and genealogy. The narrative begins with a recounting of the adventures of its pioneering British, Irish, and German families, like the Tygarts, the organization of the county and its court, and the laying out of towns before attending to such customary topics as conflicts between pioneers and Native Americans, road construction, education, the Civil War in Randolph County, Randolph County professionals, etc. Strewn among these chapters are valuable lists of marriages, public officials, land patents, soldiers, physicians, attorneys, and so on. Of even greater interest to researchers, of course, are the scores of biographical notes at the conclusion of the book and the roughly 100 genealogical sketches of Randolph County founding families.