In 1718, John Rathmell immigrated to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, becoming the first person with the Rathmell name to set foot in the New World. While many amateur genealogists claim John Rathmell as an ancestor, his origins have always been shrouded in mystery with descendants having little more than family stories to describe Rathmell's origin. Edwin Blair Wilson, whose family descends from Rathmell, uses original documents collected from archives in Pennsylvania and the United Kingdom to prove Rathmell's point of origin. With a detective's attention to detail, Wilson peels back the pages of time, revealing original documents that prove how Rathmell was born in Yorkshire and joined a Quaker congregation before sailing to Pennsylvania as a young man.