Dear Folks on the list, I have been searching the parentage of our JAMES MADISON BREWSTER. He was born 7 Apr 1787 in (unk), and died 20 Mar 1866 in Lauderdale Co., MS. I would love to correspond with any "cousins" out there that are connected tot he same line! I am including to the list this message that was sent to me by Sarah Mozingo of Choctaw Co., AL. Perhaps from it you will gain some clues that can help us both! "The following is an excerpt written by Gloria Brown Bruister. It is interesting, although probably of no help. While it mentions a Miss Edwards, there is no mention of Stephen. Since this is so long, I will send separately what I have on Joseph, which is very little. BRUISTER / BREWSTER The family name is English, originally Brewster. The Choctaw County line of the family has used various spellings. Old James Madison Brewster , himself, used three different spellings in official documents: Bruster, Brewster, Bruister. Only two of his children used the Bruister spelling. These two, James Washington and Sebastian Lafayette Bruister settled in Choctaw County, AL. Their brother, Hiram Hamilton Brewster who settled in Vimville, MS retained the old spelling, as did the other brothers and sisters and sisters and their half brothers and sisters. Various family tales have been told as to the reason for the change-mail getting mixed up because the names were the same, or the children of the first wife, not approving of James Madison's second wife, who was much younger than their own mother. However, I choose to believe a letter written February 20, 1904 by Malvenia Warham Ulmer Smith Brewster, wife of Eli Jefferson Brewster, and daughter - in-law of James Washington Bruister, to her sister-in-law, Hester Anna Brewster Carnathan. Copied from a paper taken from his father's own words, by Mr. E. J. Brewster in 1879: "James Madison Brewster married Mary Jane Smith, daughter of Coddington Smith, a merchant of N. C., and Englishman by birth. Coddington Smith died in the ocean on one of his return trips from England, where he had gone to buy goods. Coddington Smith's wife was Sarah Jernegan, a North Carolinian by birth. James Madison Brewster's father died while he was quite young. His mother was a Miss Bowen. She had a brother Joshua Bowen. The family name is English, and was originally Brewster. " "My father, James Madison, was one of nine children: James M., Washington, Hiram, Henry, Sallie, Nancy, Matilda, Malinda and one other daughter, name now forgotten." "Nancy married Henry Potts; Matilda married Sebastian Haupt; Malinda married Joe Wheat; Sallie married Joshua Scurlock; the other sister married a man named Campbell." "James Brewster had these children by Mary Smith: Columbus, James Washington, Hiram Hamilton, Sebastian Lafayette, Sarah Louvisa, and Mary Ann. (Stephen) (Louvisa is unknown). Sarah married James Burnett. Mary Ann married Jas. Edwards. " "Hester, you know Pa (James Washington Bruister) never changed the spelling of the name until his father married again. His second wife was Miss Edwards." "Mrs. Watkins, Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Mason, Geo. and Jim Brewster, near Meridian, Miss., were children of second marriage. They tell me their father lived and died "BREWSTER", and their brother, Washington, was the only one who changed the spelling. " "When I talked to Pa about it and begged him to put the name right, he said he could do it after his death. He had thought he was right at the time he did it." "We simply resume the original spelling. Better be wrong one generation than many!" Malvenia Brewster said in a letter of February 20, 1904: "I would have thought that Bro. Hiram's wife, Huberta Lang Nicholson, would have seen how sensible it was, to resume the old name." Sarah" Sincerely, Marion in Texas