John W. Prather's Book I  Available, Used (as of 15 Apr 2010)

The good news and the bad news:  I found John's book I (Praters in Wiltshire, 1480-1670: Volume I) on Amazon.com today...that's the good news.  The bad news is the 2 sellers each want $150.00 ....WOW

Buy at your own discretion!!...click here:  

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Finding Aid for the Lillard-Bonner Collection

Two researchers who spent their lifetimes studying the Prather-Prater families and related lines in America and England were the late E. Stout Lillard, a staff member of the Library of Congress, and Mrs. Kathryn R. Bonner, publisher of a Prater-Prather Family Association Newsletter. When combined, their collected papers fill nearly ten cubic feet of files containing documents, correspondence with hundreds of other researchers, charts, family group sheets, and many miscellaneous items. 

These Lillard-Bonner materials are housed with the Special Collections division of the Kentucky History Center of the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort, KY, where they are accessible to patrons during the regular hours of the Special Collections facility.  An accompanying Finding Aid contains a short history of the Lillard-Bonner Collection, brief biographical notes about contributing family researchers, a rather detailed inventory of the Collection's 283 items, and an every-name index to the inventory.

The librarians have informed me that the Finding Aid will soon be placed on their website http://205.204.134.47:2005/ where it will be available at no cost.  For that reason, I plan to discontinue my practice of providing electronic copies of the Finding Aid to inquirers.  

If a researcher locates promising leads in the Finding Aid, he or she is encouraged to visit Frankfort to examine the voluminous files in person.  Also, as it happens, Frankfort is home to the Kentucky Archives and other valuable resources for Prater/Prather researchers, particularly those whose ancestors lived in Kentucky.

Richard A. Stowe, rastowe@comcast.net