We bring our investigation to a close, tracing Moby's tree back to Scotland and talk through all of Herman Melville's own family's ancestral hopes.

Gregor Ehrlich
Background on Herman Melville’s genealogy and Thomas and Allan Melvill’s attempt to prove their relation to General Robert Melvill comes several sources, including:

“Data on the Melvill Family,” the research put together by Allan Melvill, courtesy of the Berkshire Athenaeum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Herman Melville's Malcom Letter, (Hennig Cohen and Donald Yannella, 1992)
“Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Melville,” (ed. Cuyler Reynolds, 1911)
Jean F. Melvill, “Melvill Genealogy,” Melville Society Extracts Number 95, December 1993
Merton Sealts Jr., “The Melvill Heritage,” Harvard Library Bulletin XXXIV (4), Fall 1986
Hershel Parker, Herman Melville: A Biography (Volume 1), 1996

John Bryant’s biography of Herman Melville is Herman Melville: A Half-Known Life (2021)
Melville lineage back to 13th century from Sir Robert Douglas’ The Baronage of Scotland (1798)
Letters between Allan and Thomas Melvill about their ancestry and heritage are collected in “Data on the Melvill Family” (Berkshire Athenaeum)
Descendants of David Melvill of Boston, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island, Helen S. Ullmann, 2021
David Melville’s (1776-1793) pewter porringer and plate are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
Wikipedia page for David Melville (1773-1856), inventor of the first gas street lighting. For more information see Daniel W. Mattausch, “David Melville And The First American Gas Light Patents,” Rushlight Journal, December 1998
Herman Melville, Redburn (1849)
For more about Herman Melville’s choice of names for his children, and particularly Malcolm, see Herman Melville's Malcolm Letter: Man's Final Love, by Hennig Cohen and Donald Yanella (1993)
Moby discussing Moby-Dick from a video made for LA Library Foundation

Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Breakmaster Cylinder. Special thanks to John Bryant, Hap Hall, Elizabeth Doss and Gregor Ehrlich.

Moby and Herman: Part Three - The Chase