author
Henry Reed Stiles
1832–1909
Best known for chronicling Brooklyn, Long Island, and old New England families, this 19th-century physician turned painstaking archival work into lively local history. His books remain useful to readers interested in genealogy, colonial America, and the growth of New York.
1 Audiobook
Bundling; Its Origin, Progress and Decline in America
by Henry Reed Stiles
About the author
Born in New York City on March 10, 1832, Henry Reed Stiles studied at the College of the City of New York and Williams before training in medicine at the New York University medical school. He worked as a physician in New York and also spent several years practicing in Dundee, Scotland, while steadily developing a deep interest in historical and genealogical research.
That second career became his lasting legacy. Stiles wrote and edited major works on Brooklyn and Kings County, including A History of the City of Brooklyn, and produced detailed family and regional histories such as The History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut and The Stiles Family in America. He also served as librarian of the Long Island Historical Society, a role that fit his talent for gathering and organizing records.
His writing is especially valued for the sheer amount of material he preserved. Even when later historians revise his conclusions or update his methods, his books still offer a rich window into 19th-century ideas about local history, family lineage, and the early communities of New York and New England.