While tracing the story of one Connecticut loyalist family, the book relates the stories of over 100 others  who also shared the experience of living in a politically divided town, finding sanctuary in a refugee camp, sailing on the first evacuation ship for New Brunswick, and founding a loyalist settlement.  The Burdens of Loyalty has been used in the loyalist studies course at the University of New Brunswick and was recently cited in Thomas B. Allen's book Tories: Fighting for the King in the First American Civil War. Allen said: "Stephen Eric Davidson especially helped me understand the pride of present-day Loyalists.  His work on the Loyalists past is a model for genealogists, for he adds human details and family stories to the "begat,begat, begat" of traditional genealogies."

"Every now and then, a true gem crosses the path of the family researcher. A jewel that not only sparkles with new information, but also has the luster of being, well, just plain entertaining...

This happened to me last month when I received an email informing me of a new book {The Burdens of Loyalty}, centered on a Lyon family, that fell into an easily readable format.

...The Burdens of Loyalty is an easy and entertaining book -- more personal in nature than scholarly, but within its 200+ pages, the reader will find wonderful insights to the life and troubles of a family finding itself pitted against friends and neighbors and, ultimately, ending up on the losing side of the conflict. The story of the Loyalists after the War is largely unknown. The tales of blacklisting hardships, of resettlement, of the need to begin life anew in a foreign land leave the reader with a renewed appreciation for the fortitude of our ancestors...

Like any good reference on the Revolutionary War, "Burdens" covers battles and bravery, prison life, and fugitive strategies -- but it also shows the endurance of the human spirit, the fortitude of standing up for your convictions, and the healing strength of community. The Lyon family is at the center, but their story is enmeshed with the stories of many other loyalists (and patriots) to place events of the time in fuller context."