Dear Laurel, How exciting to be going ancestor hunting in MA! I am a descendant of Thomas1, Samuel2, Jonathan3, Benjamin4, and Benjamin5. By all means go to Andover, where Samuel is buried. Go first to the Andover Historical Society, which is in a Blanchard house. They have (or did have) possession of Samuel Blanchard's actual gravestone, which is one of the masterpieces of early American gravestone carving. When I first laid eyes on it, in the 1960's, it was still in the cemetery-- the Hist. Soc. can tell you which one. At that time in MA you could actually apply to the authorities to take possession of a proven ancestor's gravestone, or so I was told. When I saw how beautiful it was-- there is, amazingly, no wear on the stone at all, and I could still see the thin guideline marks under each row of letters-- and how vulnerable to vandalism, I was tempted, but how could I justify depriving others of this beauty? So I had a plaster replica made by a man from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for a couple of hundred dollars. (It hung proudly in my family room for years, until one day, when we were painting the room, we took it down and broke it!) Eventually it was vandalized-- someone used it for target practice. So the Historical Society took it in, or so they said in a bulletin I got from them. I hope you find it and enjoy it as much as I did. The man who carved it is known-- but I forget his name. He was a younger son of a family of gravestone carvers-- they produced some marvelous stones. His initials are on the stone, as I recall. It occurs to me to ask if any other of Samuel's descendants are interested in having a copy? If ten people were interested, perhaps we could all get together and get someone to make us some copies. Perhaps you might ask for a reference from the Boston MFA of a first rate copyist. We should save money by making a package deal. It really is a special thing-- and the bullet hole did minor damage, as I remember-- just a round hole which the copyist could probably fill in with wet plaster before finishing it. While you're there, ask them what kind of stone was used. It has worn like-- better than-- iron. On the subject of our mutual lineage, I've always thought that Samuel's son Jonathan must have been named after the ship "Jonathan" that he and his father came over on in 1639, when Samuel was a boy of 10. His family had a miserable trip, with his stepmother and step-grandmother dying en route, but think of what a thrill the voyage would have been for a country boy from Hampshire, England! Samuel named his first son after himself, but his second son, I like to think, was named for the most glorious adventure of his life. Here's to adventure! ---Betsy Blanchard Burr