If you will go to gencircles.com, instead of just using name box use search, enter Samuel BRADFORD, b1738 exact date. You will find several enteries for Samuel, one from MD and one from CT. Download the pedigree and gedcom files and analyze them. The one from CT is from the Gov. The MD one is very doubtful. Bob

Hi Bob, You're right - the data at gencircles is unreliable, at least as regards Samuel of MD. Samuel Bradford of Worcester, MD, was born probably in the 1730s or 1740s, i.e., around the same time as Samuel the son of John Bradford and Esther Sherwood. When later descendants looked in the records of Worcester County they noticed a John Bradford married to an Esther. This was Esther Smith, but no matter - the coincidence of the names and the general match of the dates was enough to clinch the deal for some. THereafter, these two Samuels have often been reported as the same individual. All of these online sources - gencircles, genweb, rootsweb or whatever-web, are all third or even fourth hand information. I've been scouring original county records and am now finally making some small headway in the search for Samuel's parentage. Anyone hoping that evidence of Samuel's parentage will miraculously appear on some website is bound to be disappointed. Unless the information is posted by someone who's gone digging hard and long through original sources. - Adam On 10/16/05, RobMBrad@aol.com <RobMBrad@aol.com> wrote: > If you will go to gencircles.com, instead of just using name box use search, > enter Samuel BRADFORD, b1738 exact date. You will find several enteries for > Samuel, one from MD and one from CT. Download the pedigree and gedcom files and > analyze them. The one from CT is from the Gov. The MD one is very doubtful. > Bob >