This extensive genealogical history covers all branches of the Dwight family, male and female, spanning 240 years from the family's first settlement in this country in c.1640. The author has gathered and compiled biographical and historical details from aged members of the family, family records, town records, town histories, personal memoirs and general histories. "The number of names recorded in the work...will be some 10,000 or more. Large accounts will be found in it of various related families, of such names as Cabot, Chapin, Child, Clark, Dana, Dewey, Foster, Graves, Hall, Hamlin, Hooker, Howe, Kellogg, Kent, King, Lathrop, Loomis, Lyman, Partridge, Porter, Pynchon, Ripley, Sanford, Sedgwick, Southmayd, Strong, Taylor, Terry, Whitney, Willard, Woodbury and Woolsey." Individual chapters are devoted to the history of the English Dwights, Timothy Dwight of Medfield, John Dwight of Dedham and Timothy Dwight of Dedham. Descendants are grouped under Justice Nathaniel Dwight, Rev. Josiah Dwight, Capt. Henry Dwight, Michael Dwight, and the Shirley Dwights. The author also touches on families having assumed the Dwight name, sporadic occurrences of the name, and collateral genealogies of connected families. Several biographical sketches are provided. Genealogical entries list (as available): dates of birth, marriage, and death; name of spouse with like data; and, a list of children with their birth and death dates. Supplemental biographical information varies by entry. Numerous portraits, the Dwight Coat of Arms, the Stoddard Coat of Arms, and three indices (a surname index of briefly connected families, a full-name index of Dwight surnames, and a general full-name index) round out this work.