A Short History of the Slocums, Slocumbs and Slocombs of America: Genealogical and Biographical; Embracing Eleven Generations of the First-named Family, from 1637 to 1881: with Their Alliances and the Descendants in the Female Lines as Far as Ascertained

Published in 1882 in Syracuse, New York, this exhaustive genealogical work was the product of over a decade of meticulous research by Dr. Charles Elihu Slocum. As the interest in ancestral lineage grew during the late nineteenth-century American genealogical boom, Slocum aimed to synthesize scattered colonial records into a cohesive narrative. He traveled extensively to consult town records, land deeds, and family bibles to bridge the gap between the earliest English settlers and their nineteenth-century descendants.

The volume is noted for its ambitious scope, covering eleven generations across multiple spelling variations of the surname. Dr. Slocum, a physician and historian, utilized a systematic approach to documentation that was considered quite advanced for the era. The work remains a primary source for genealogists studying the Slocum family, often praised for its inclusion of biographical sketches that provide context beyond mere dates and names, effectively capturing the migration patterns and social history of the family in early America.