The following article is from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2001 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. ====================================== - CD-ROM: Inhabitants and Estates of the Town of Boston 1630-1800 This week I had a chance to use a new Windows and Macintosh CD-ROM disk published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. This electronic publication is the "Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, 1630-1800 & The Crooked and Narrow Streets of Boston, 1630-1822 by Annie Haven Thwing." Informally, it is called "The Thwing Index." This is a great genealogy resource for anyone searching for Boston ancestry. Quoting from the introduction to the CD-ROM: When Annie Haven Thwing (1851-1940), the daughter of a Boston coal merchant, reached her mid- thirties, she became curious to know "where my ancestors lived, who were their neighbors, and what the neighborhood was like." She found it impossible, however, to contain her project, and she spent the next thirty years researching the geographic and built environment of Boston from 1630 to 1822. Tracing people and their properties through deed, probate, and the recently printed town records, enlisting church records, diaries, and graveyard epitaphs, Thwing painstakingly built an index consisting of some 125,000 catalog cards. These she used to publish, in 1920, her classic The Crooked and Narrow Streets of the Town of Boston, 1630-1822. Four years before, she had given her card index to the Massachusetts Historical Society, where it occupied seventy-four library drawers in the catalog room. Although arranged only by subjects' names, the index has proved a valuable resource for historians and genealogists. In 1993 the MHS decided to convert Annie Thwing's monumental work into an electronic database, which would be searchable not just by name, but by occupation, spouse, birth, death, property holdings-up to twenty different factors or any combination of them. The task, which included editing and adding to the original card index, was completed in early 1999. Thwing's card index and this database are by no means comprehensive. The 62,000 records at your fingertips do not represent a census of all Boston inhabitants during this period. Thwing's methodology, and indeed the historical records themselves, were biased toward property holders. The creators of this database began to make records for the many spouses and children indicated in Thwing's index not given cards of their own, but could not finish that phase of the project. Additionally, the vast majority of Boston's African American and Indian residents lacked records; users will now find nearly 5,000 such records in the database, created by MHS staff. While both Macintosh and Windows are supported, I installed the CD-ROM database on a Windows 2000 system. Installation of the CD-ROM database was simple: click on SETUP.EXE and follow the on-screen instructions. Less than a minute later I was looking at data. The "Inhabitants and Estates of the Town of Boston" CD-ROM uses Folio Views software, an excellent choice in my opinion. It fully supports copy-and-paste, creation of bookmarks, writing "sticky notes," and other advanced features. This CD-ROM also has an excellent search mechanism. Not only can you easily perform a simple search for a word or phrase, but you can also do full Boolean searches using terms such as AND, OR, NOT, EXCLUSIVE OR, wild cards by a single letter or multiple letters, and also search by proximity. For instance, you can specify a search for "all the entries for Adams that are in close proximity to the word Samuel but not near the word John." As always, I first did a search for my own surname and found only one "hit." No surprise there, as I have never found any records of the family living in Boston during Colonial times. The family was mostly in northern Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with later generations moving to Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and westward. Sure enough, even the one entry in this Boston CD-ROM disk pointed to Maine with a brief mention of a daughter who married Thomas Eastman of Maine. Here is a "copy and paste" of that record, showing the type of information that can be found on this CD-ROM disk: LAST: Frothingham FIRST: Nathaniel BIRTH: 1746 PARENTS: Nathaniel Frothingham of Charlestown Mary Whittemore SPOUSE: 1771 Rebecca Austin (1st) December 22, 1785 Mary Townsend (2nd) April 8, 1802 Lydia Kettell m(int) (TR 30:479) (3rd) CHILDREN: Children of first marriage- 1779 Nathaniel of Boston 1781 Rebecca m1781 James Goddard of Boston Children of second marriage- 1787 Mary m Wm. N. Taylor 1792 Susannah m Thomas Eastman of Maine Ruth m John Redman HOME: West St. (BD 1796) 5 West St. (BD 1800) OCCUPATION: Chaisemaker Coachmaker (BD 1796-1800) BUSINESS: Common St. (BD 1796-1800) EVENT: April 3, 1793 Nathaniel Frothingham and Co. tenants of the Town in Labratory Building. (TR 27:201) DEED: August 18, 1783 Nathaniel Frothingham, Jr. (chaisemaker) and Nathaniel Frothingham buy house and land of John Tufts. (SD 139:180) S.E. corner of West and Mason Sts. TEXT: First marriage not recorded in Boston. Second marriage by The Rev. Peter Thatcher. (TR 30:79) REFERENCE: father Nathaniel Frothingham is 20368 / mother Mary Whittemore is / first wife Rebecca Austin is 31961 / second wife Mary Townsend is / third wife Lydia Kettell is / son Nathaniel is 31962 / daughter Rebecca is 31963 / daughter Mary is 31964 / daughter Susannah is 31965 / daughter Ruth is 31966 / John Tufts is / REFCODE: 20369 Not all records on this CD-ROM will have all of this information, while other records may have even more. However, this record is typical, with name, all known marriages and children, parents, occupation, residence, and biographical notes. Keep in mind that this CD-ROM contains the equivalent of seventy-four library drawers full of index cards! This half-ounce piece of plastic is much easier to store than those seventy-four drawers and is also easier to search. The "Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, 1630-1800 & The Crooked and Narrow Streets of Boston, 1630-1822 by Annie Haven Thwing" is an excellent genealogy reference, consisting of 125,000 transcribed records made from original documents by a trained and motivated genealogist. This CD-ROM disk is destined to become a standard reference for genealogists. "Inhabitants of the Town of Boston, 1630-1800 & The Crooked and Narrow Streets of Boston, 1630-1822" sells for $39.99 plus $2.00 shipping. For more information, look at:http://www.newenglandancestors.org/store/browse/product.asp?sk u=3119&dept_id=24

I'm passing this on, as it would appear to be a highly useful gift for that hard-to-please genealogist (or yourself). Standard disclaimer: I have no financial interest, and don't know any of the folks who publish these CDs. I'm forwarding this post because the product is relatively unique, modestly priced, and highly useful --and because the British publishers are doing us a good turn and could use some "word-of-mouth" marketing in return.. Chris Christopher Brooks Researching Brooks families of New England Listowner, BROOKS-NE, HAPGOOD & MERRIAM lists at RootsWeb ================================== A fabulous new CD released today: The National Gazetteer of the United States 1884. A comprehensive account of every State, territory, county, city, town and village throughout the Union, with populations from the last national census (1880). Incredibly useful information about railroads, navigation, lakes, rivers, rivers, canals, mountains and valleys as well as the physical and statistical geography of the country. ================================================================= ======= This CD complements another earlier 1854 USA gazetteer which we released some time ago. When we released the 1854 we expected it to do quite well, but to our *amazement* we have managed to part with very, very few indeed. :-( Now, these books contain details of *every* place in the United States. As an example one of my wife's relatives emigrated from Scotland in the 1870's and fetched up in a place called Cobham Va, growing grapes. The entry in 1884 for the place says 'Cobham Va., p.v. (post village) Co (county), 15m. E. of Charlottesville. Pop 85.' (note that the population figure is taken from the 1880 census). Using this information I can tell you that Mr Bird and family accounted for more than 10% of the whole village! Obviously, being such a tiny place it only gets a tiny mention but the fact is that it *is* in the book. I also looked up Tombstone, Arizona and was amazed to find that it was even smaller than Cobham was, with only 80 people there in 1880! I did a bit of digging and found out that Tombstone's population just a year later was estimated to be up to seven *thousand*, and around fifteen thousand in 1885! Today it is about 1500. The entries for some of the bigger places though are just fantastic, with lots of history and interesting facts about each place. Plus details of the population numbers in 1880. So why did the 1854 CD apparently appeal to so few people? The truth is that we did not effectively promote the CD on the American genealogy mailing lists because we simply did not know which ones to mention it on. This is where you wonderful supporters of Archive CD Books really can make a difference. There *must* be some of you folks out there who are active on American Lists and I would like to appeal to those of you who are to try and give this new CD a bit of a push, it really does deserve to reach a wider audience. I was told earlier this week by an American supporter of The Project that this 1884 CD might prove more popular, simply because there were more and more people pouring into the USA and creating new towns and villages all over the country. Time will tell. The web page for the 1884 CD is at http://www.rod-neep.co.uk/acatalog/Archive_CD_Books_USA_16.html You all might like to take a look at the latest releases page as well (I've updated that three times *already* today). ================================================================= ======= The Project is all about making CDs of old and rare books available to genealogists and historians at a reasonable price. It is a "user supported" project. Some of these books have been kindly lent to the project by various individuals, some from County Record Offices, museums, family history societies and libraries, and some which we have purchased. All of them are old and rare. Many of those books purchased from book dealers (no matter how expensive they were) are subsequently given away to one of the above organisations. We all gain ================================================================= ======= Best wishes to you all -- Rob Dewsall ARCHIVE CD BOOKS - old books for genealogists reproduced on CD Mailing list : [email protected] (for discussions) Weekly News : [email protected] (weekly announcements & news) E-mail : [email protected] Web : http://www.archivecdbooks.com

Marianne wrote: >Julius Caesar Brooks born 9 Sep 1826 in Ohio. According to the 1900 census >his father was born in Vermont and mother in New York. His father is George >Washington Brooks born 1780. I'm hoping someone has some information about >Julius' parents. > >Julius married Mariam Wallace Haskell on 8 Dec 1853 in Lee County Iowa. They >then migrated to California, Sutter County, Nicholas township. [snip] Sorry, I can't match him. I do have a fondness for "big" names. :-) I have three George Washingtons, but none close to this date. I have a Julius Clarendon and and Julius Harrington, but no Caesar. Omnia Gallia est divisa, and so on. But from his name, and the VT locale, I think you're almost certainly looking for a descendant of William/1 Brooks of Springfield, MA, or of one of the CT founders. These two groups constitute the great majority of Brooks emigrants to southern and central VT, and have a near total-monopoly on the "classical" names. You can find thumbnail sketches of the founders, and some basic sources for each, in the list archive. Does anyone else recognize this name? Chris

I'm hoping these Brooks look familiar to someone. Julius Caesar Brooks born 9 Sep 1826 in Ohio. According to the 1900 census his father was born in Vermont and mother in New York. His father is George Washington Brooks born 1780. I'm hoping someone has some information about Julius' parents. Julius married Mariam Wallace Haskell on 8 Dec 1853 in Lee County Iowa. They then migrated to California, Sutter County, Nicholas township. They had six children: Benjamin b. 1855 Olive Anna b. 18 Jun 1856 m. Henry Murphey Albert b. 1856 Truman b. 30 Jun 1856 Clara b. 7 Feb 1864 m. Caswell Dorris Asa Grant b. 13 Sep 1874 Thanks, Marianne

>Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 13:41:00 -0500 >From: Polly Houser <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] > >I am hoping that someone out there can help me locate the parents and >siblings of Josiah T. Brooks. He was born around 1832 possibly in Ohio >or maybe PA. He married a Melissa Jane Chevalier from Reedsville, >Meigs Co., Ohio in 1853 and they had 5 children that I know of: Laura >Alice (died at an earlier age and cannot find here grave or death date), >Elizabeth Florence, John Ellison, Charles Hopkins, and James Finley. >Josiah T. joined the 4th West Virginia Infantry on July 30. 1861 and his >military papers list his age as 28 on that day. He came down with >pneumonia while serving and was sent to the Gallipolis Hospital in Ohio >and he died there in July of 1864. > >I do have an obituary for Charles Hopkins Brooks ( Josiah's son) and it >says that he was born in Reedsville, Ohio in 1857. So that puts Josiah >in Reedsville before going to Pickaway County where I found him on the >1860 census. I hope some of these names connect with one of you. I >am avidly reading each days e-mail hoping to connect. This is my >brick wall and any help would be greatly apprecaited. Hi Polly, I've never been able to match your names/dates with anything in my data, so I thought I'd try an IGI (International Genealogical Index) search for leads. I looked for the birth of any Josiah Brooks, no date, and that scrolled the records dated 1828-1840. 111 hits on this name, but only a few with proper dates for our purposes. ================================ Film 1904022, Official Temple Record for Deceased Individuals, 1991-1996, apparently contains an entry for a Josiah T. Brooks, b. ca. 1828, Meigs, OH. So it appears someone else has researched the same man in the past. But this is a submitted rather than extracted file, and the notes say, "Submitter's name and address are currently not available." That wording suggests availability is a matter of the LDS getting this film indexed rather than legal prohibition on releasing the submitter's name. Film 1761182, same title as above, indexes a Josiah Brooks b. 1831, Pennsylvania. Again, submitter information not available. Film 2034338, same title, indexes a Josiah Brooks b. 1831, Licking, OH, son of Henry Brooks and Elizabeth Mowbray. Submitter unavailable. Finishing out births of Josiahs in the decade of the 1830s, anywhere in the North: Film 1553291, Patron Sheets, 1969-1991 -- Josiah Joseph Brooks, b. 4 Dec 1836, Cincinnati, Hamilton, OH, father "Brooks," mother "Leeper." "Batch numbers may be out of order." Film 1903540, Official Temple Record for Deceased Individuals, 1991-1996 -- submitter unavailable -- Josiah Brooks, b. ca 1837 "of, Hamilton, OH," to Amaniel Brooks/Mrs. Eliza Brooks. Film 2034665, Official Temple Record for Deceased Individuals, 1991-1996 -- submitter unavailable -- Josiah Allen Brooks, s. of Amariah Harris Brooks/Eliza Leeper, b. ca. 1838. "of, Hamilton, OH" And that's it. It appears that others have researched several discrete individuals with the name of Josiah Brooks who could fit with your man. ================================ Working the other direction, I looked for a Melissa Chevalier. Far fewer hits -- 5 in all - but all appear to be your woman. Born 1 Dec 1832, Forked Run, Meigs, OH; married ca. 1853, Meigs County, OH. Unfortunately, they're all submissions again rather than extracted official records of some sort. There are two pedigree submissions (duplicates) which provide the name and mailing address of the (one) submitter, one Judy Mix of Greenfield, IN, so you might want to take a look at www.familysearch.org for yourself to follow up. ================================ Sorry I couldn't provide more specific help, but if any of these are unfamiliar to you, they're probably worth following up. And please keep querying the list from time to time. Even if there's no response at the time, your query is preserved in the list archive. Sooner or later, we hope the "right person" might see it there. Regards, Chris ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Christopher Hapgood Brooks Researching BROOKS Families of New England |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Good morning, It's probably inevitable that the snake handler eventually gets bitten himself. :-( One listreader received an infected message from my machine overnight. Based on the manner in which the worm operates, every one of you who has written an email now sitting in my inbox should have received at least one infected message from my machine. With 102 emails in my inbox at the moment, there are far more of you than I can expeditiously warn via private message before I have to leave for work. Symptoms: -- Authentic subject line -- No text in the message -- An underscore preceding the return address Remedy: -- Get offline IMMEDIATELY. As long as you're connected, your machine, if infected, can spew new messages containing the worm to everyone in YOUR inbox. -- Delete the infected messages -- Run your virus scanner and search your entire hard disk, or all of them, if you have a multi-disk system. Let this be a reminder that NONE of us is immune! Keep updating your virus software daily, and keep scanning! Sorry, Chris

Malcolm Brooks wrote: >I am interested in Jeffrey Lash's information concerning Gilbert Brooks >and his brother William, contained Vol#117 of the Brooks NE-D Digest. I am >a descendent of William Brooks of Springfield. I wonder if the two >Williams are the same person. No. The recorded and thus known lives of William of Scituate and William of Springfield overlap by about 40 years. They are distinctly separate identities. >Some years ago I was researching passenger lists and I came upon the >following information contained in a book entitled, "The Planters of the >Commonwealth", by Charles E. Banks: >William Brooke Age 20 Servant Marshfield >Gilbert Brooke Age 14 Servant Marshfield >Ship Hopewell > >From London >To Boston >Date 1635 >Left Sept. >Arrived Nov. >Is my information incorrect, or is this simply a coincidence involving >persons with similar names? These are the Brooke brothers who did indeed come over on the Blessing in 1635 as servants of William Vassall. They're accounted for from their embarkation in England until their deaths in New England. William of Springfield has long been suggested to have come from London, and to have been born in 1610. Those origins are quite murky to my mind. But he is well-recorded at Springfield and Deerfield from 1646 until his death in 1688. He also had so many children of his own (16) that one would be hard-pressed to additionally squeeze in the Scituate man's progeny. :-) >Where is Scituate? On the southeastern rim of Massachusetts Bay. The bay forms a rough semicircle with Boston at 9 o'clock, Salem at 12 o'clock and Scituate at 5 o'clock, with the Atlantic to the east. Scituate is only perhaps 15 miles to Boston's outskirts as the crow flies, and was a flourishing port in the 17th century. Chris

I am interested in Jeffrey Lash's information concerning Gilbert Brooks and his brother William, contained Vol#117 of the Brooks NE-D Digest. I am a descendent of William Brooks of Springfield. I wonder if the two Williams are the same person. Some years ago I was researching passenger lists and I came upon the following information contained in a book entitled, "The Planters of the Commonwealth", by Charles E. Banks: William Brooke Age 20 Servant Marshfield Gilbert Brooke Age 14 Servant Marshfield Ship Hopewell >From London To Boston Date 1635 Left Sept. Arrived Nov. Is my information incorrect, or is this simply a coincidence involving persons with similar names? Where is Scituate? Malcolm Brooks

Jeffrey Lash wrote: >Thanks for the clearer description of Thomas Grant's legal status in >America prior to his release from servitude and purchase of land near >Re\hoboth. I suppose we could definitely say Gilbert Brooks and his older >brother William were "bondservants" of William Vassall who brought both of >them to Boston in 1635. I had thought, perhaps erroneously, that Grant >himself would be considered a "slave" in the sense of forced labor in the >salt mines regardless of the duration or conditions of employment. I probably muddled more than clarified. Thomas Grant, in today's language, would be a prisoner of war. Without a look at contemporary records (which I haven't time to undertake), I honestly don't how what moniker to use for his status. The word "indenture" was commonly used at that time, and we know that Gilbert and William Brooks worked off their indentures to William Vassall, since both were later freemen and property-owners. But I really don't know how to characterize the Civil War prisoners sent here as convicts, at least in whatever was the appropriate terminology of the day. Speaking of Gilbert, the "Great Migration" profile of him indicates that he consistently signed documents by mark rather than by signature. So much for the various LDS pedigrees which make out to be the son of a London minister. An illiterate indentured servant was much more likely the son of a yeoman farmer than the son of a clergyman, who would be a university graduate. >And did you know Gilbert was brought to court in 1639/39 for "drinking >inordinately" while in 1646 he was accused by Capt. Miles Standish on some >legal matter? The court found for our wayward Gilbert. I did. Did *you* know that Standish, a diminutive, quarrelsome man who swaggered about like a banty rooster, was pejoratively known as "Captain Shrimpe" by his contemporaries? :-) Today we'd probably describe him as "having a Napoleon complex." Chris

Thanks for the information of this subject, Chris........... This is fascinating !! Best to all, Sharon in CA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Brooks" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 2:13 PM Subject: [B-NE] Bondservants/Slaves in the Brooks families > Jeff Lash's characterization of his ancestor Thomas Grant as a "slave" made > me think. Grant's situation was that of a Royalist prisoner taken by the > Parliamentary forces which won the civil war in England. Many of these > prisoners forcibly exiled to the colonies as servants -- but I thought as > "bondservants," meaning that their servitude was finite, as opposed to a > slave, whose servitude was lifelong. When the few surviving Pequots, for > instance, were enslaved at the end of the Pequot War, "slavery" was the > literal word used by the authorities who determined on this course of > action. But as I recall, Jeffrey mentioned that Thomas Grant gained his > freedom. > > Would appreciate any thoughts or additional evidence or references on the > proper language and differentiation here. > > I'll draw the attention of new listreaders to a previous thread or two > we've had on the slaveholders in the Brooks families of New England. You'll > find the little we discussed in the list archive. If you're new, or we > haven't personally corresponded, and you have a Brooks ancestor who was a > slaveholder, I'd like to know about it -- I track them. > > Thanks, > > Chris > > Christopher Brooks, List Administrator: > ==================================== > BROOKS-NE (Brooks Families of New England), > HAPGOOD, and MERRIAM lists at RootsWeb. > ==================================== > [email protected] > > ______________________________

Hi all, Forwarding this from Jeffrey Lash. ============================== Chris, Thanks for the clearer description of Thomas Grant's legal status in America prior to his release from servitude and purchase of land near Re\hoboth. I suppose we could definitely say Gilbert Brooks and his older brother William were "bondservants" of William Vassall who brought both of them to Boston in 1635. I had thought, perhaps erroneously, that Grant himself would be considered a "slave" in the sense of forced labor in the salt mines regardless of the duration or conditions of employment. I'm also researching Thomas Symons (Simons) of Scituate who sold land to Gilbert Brooks in 1649. Thomas is said to have been in Plymouth Colony by 1633. Could he be related to Moses Symonson? One source says he was not related to Moses, but perhaps had a daughter who married Gilbert. Also, Gilbert was a constable in Dixbury in 1645 and that's where Moses I or son Moses II lived. And di you know Gilbert was brought to court in 1639/39 for "drinking inordinately" while in 1646 he was accused by Capt. Miles Standish on some legal matter? The court found for our wayward Gilbert. Jeffrey Lash

I had forgotten this trick but saw it on another list. I implemented this trick myself months ago. It's not effective for the current BadTrans (which finds its targets in your email inbox), but it does work for the great majority of worms which target your address book. Takes one minute to set up and it's free. ============================== To protect your E-Address As you may know, when/if a worm virus gets into your computer it heads straight for your email address book and sends itself to everyone in there, thus infecting all your friends and associates. This trick won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will stop it from using your address book to spread further, and it will alert you to the fact that the worm has gotten into your system. Here's what you do: first, open your address book and click on "new contact" just as you would do if you were adding a new friend to your list of email addresses. In the window where you would type your friend's first name, type in ! 000 (that's an exclamation mark followed by 3 zeros). In the window below where it prompts you to enter the new email address, type in WormAlert. (If it tells you this is not a valid address just say yes to add it, or OK. ) Then complete everything by clicking add, enter, OK, etc. Now, here's what you've done and why it works: the "name" ! OOO will be placed at the top of your address book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in an effort to send itself to all your friends. But when it tries to send itself to ! (XX), it will be undeliverable because of the phony email address you entered (WormAlert). If the first attempt fails (which it will because of the phony address), the worm goes no further and your friends will not be infected. Here's the second great advantage of this method: if an email cannot be delivered, you will be notified of this in your Inbox almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an email telling you that an email addressed to WormAlert could not be delivered, you know right away that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid of it! ============================== Chris

>"This worm, similar to the recent W32/Aliz and W32/Nimda worms, uses >a special trick to execute even if a mail is just opened or previewed >in Outlook/Outlook Express. This is accomplished using a known >security hole "Incorrect MIME Header Can Cause IE to Execute E-mail >Attachment". > >Information and patch is available from: > >http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/sec >urity/bulletin/MS01-020.asp > >The security hole is a known issue with Internet Explorer versions >5.01 and 5.5 without SP2 . Users who have this configuration should >apply >the available patch." ---Symantec Message--- The W32.Badtrans worm spreads itself by automatically replying to all emails in an infected computer's inbox, rather than using the address book as many other worms do. When the infected person received your email from the mailing list, W32.Badtrans replied to it automatically. Symantec Consumer Technical Support. The difficulty is that the attachment may not show or there is a false extension. It appears to have xxx.doc or xx.txt but the real extension ( .scr.or .exe) is 59 spaces to the right. So even if you get a email from a trusted source ( me or others) and there is no message etc, be very careful. It will also show about 29 or 30k as the size of the message. So that is a dead giveaway in that there is 30 k of message and it doesn't show up anyway . <Assorted cut-and-paste stuff from other lists this a.m.> =============================== Internet Explorer users are also vulnerable to this worm. I escaped contamination by using Eudora for email and NOT Outlook Express. I'm either clairvoyant or lucky, in that I also have replaced Internet Explorer with a non-Microsoft product. Other browser options are Netscape (free), Opera (free, and a superior product), and Net Captor (not free, $30 to register, a terrific I/E clone, but without the security holes, which I use). Again, run a Google search to locate the home/download page for any of these products. Please be sure, if using Internet Explorer, that you have ALL Microsoft security patches installed which are available for your version. You can do this by running the Windows Update installed on your machine, which will log onto the Microsoft site, analyze your installation, and then download the appropriate patches. If you haven't got Windows Update installed, use the [Start/Find/File or Folder] function in Windows to search for a file named WUPDMGR.EXE, which you can then run manually by double-clicking it. It's normally installed in C:WINDOWS. Best to close your email program as soon as you've read this warning, and not to open it again until you've done a "clean sweep." Chris

After receiving my third message in 36 hrs from a listreader infected with the BadTrans virus, it's time for a public warning. SYMPTOMS: -- Incoming messages have a subject line of "Re:" and nothing else, and no text in the message body -- Incoming messages have no body text, but a familiar subject line taken from a recent list message -- Sender's return address begins with an added underscore, making any response undeliverable Learn about it: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected] The good news is that both "threat containment" and "removal" are rated as "Easy." The bad news is that it's spreading like wildfire through the genealogy lists. PLEASE -- each of you -- update and run your virus checker RIGHT NOW. If you haven't got a virus checker, here's a free one, if you're lucky enough to be able to get through (this company's server has been gridlocked for 24 hrs with panicked users trying to download): www.grisoft.com A third, free alternative is to log on to Trend Micro's House Call site and get an online sweep and disinfection (slow, but works): http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_pcc.asp Outlook Express users are, as always with this wretched piece of software, at the greatest risk, due to the many security holes in Microsoft products. Consider switching to Eudora (www.qualcomm.com), which is free in "sponsored" mode, and a superior product on its own, or to Pegasus, also free (I don't have an address handy, but run a Google search and you'll find it). Unlike Outlook and Outlook Express, neither of these programs can activate an attached virus or worm simply by displaying the email. Yours for safe computing, Chris Christopher Brooks, List Administrator: ==================================== BROOKS-NE (Brooks Families of New England), HAPGOOD, and MERRIAM lists at RootsWeb. ==================================== [email protected]

I'm trying to contact Raymond Brooks of Massachusetts, who's researching MONTGOMERY and EUNICE BROOKS, and whose address I can no longer find. Sorry for the interruption. Chris ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Christopher Hapgood Brooks Researching BROOKS Families of New England |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Jeff Lash's characterization of his ancestor Thomas Grant as a "slave" made me think. Grant's situation was that of a Royalist prisoner taken by the Parliamentary forces which won the civil war in England. Many of these prisoners forcibly exiled to the colonies as servants -- but I thought as "bondservants," meaning that their servitude was finite, as opposed to a slave, whose servitude was lifelong. When the few surviving Pequots, for instance, were enslaved at the end of the Pequot War, "slavery" was the literal word used by the authorities who determined on this course of action. But as I recall, Jeffrey mentioned that Thomas Grant gained his freedom. Would appreciate any thoughts or additional evidence or references on the proper language and differentiation here. I'll draw the attention of new listreaders to a previous thread or two we've had on the slaveholders in the Brooks families of New England. You'll find the little we discussed in the list archive. If you're new, or we haven't personally corresponded, and you have a Brooks ancestor who was a slaveholder, I'd like to know about it -- I track them. Thanks, Chris Christopher Brooks, List Administrator: ==================================== BROOKS-NE (Brooks Families of New England), HAPGOOD, and MERRIAM lists at RootsWeb. ==================================== [email protected]

I'm passing this on from Jeffrey Lash, a new subscriber, as a combination query and self-introduction. The Elizabeth whose identity is sought was the 1st wife of Gilbert /1 Brooks, a passenger with his brother William to Scituate in the "Blessing" in 1635. Jeffrey descends from Gilbert's daughter Sarah/2, who m. Thomas GRANT. Chris ================================= Thanks for the additional information on Gilbert Brooks's wife Elizabeth; however, I'm still uncertain if she was indeed a daughter of Moses Symonson. I guess we'll have to keep working on this puzzle. Yes, go ahead and put me on your Brooks list. As to Sarah Brooks's issue, she had many children by Thomas Grant who had been exiled to Massachusetts as a slave (or a captured English Civil War soldier) in May 1652. Their youngest son, David Grant, is my lineal ancestor. David Grant removed to New Jersey where he had John Grant of Basking Ridge, NJ. His son, Capt. George Grant, was a Revolutionary War soldier (his name appears on a military map drawn by Gen. George Washington) and who fathered Joseph Grant who was the father of Rebecca, the mother of my great-grandfather Wellington S. Lash. Anyway, Sarah was born about 1654 before Gilbert left Scituate for Rehoboth in SW Mass. That's where she met the freed slave Thomas Grant. Jeffrey Lash

Bruce Brooks just wrote me: >> I just talked with my ISP. No reason for the bouncing was found. >>Suggested that you send me a test message. If it bounces, please let me >>know and also forward the error/access denied message to me so that they >>can check into it further. Bruce, We can't keep meeting like this. :-) All attempts to send you mail bounce, including my attempted reply a moment ago to the message I've quoted above. Please send me a new address. (For diagnostic purposes, you can open an instant email account at www.hotmail.com) and I will forward one of the bounced mails with full headers for you to forward in turn to your ISP. Sorry, but without a direct channel to you, I can't hold the list hostage any further to this issue. Sorry for the interruption, all. Chris

Dear Chris, Hope you savour this Thanksgiving. I'm not thinking of the turkey, but your new grandson!! Ain't life grand!! Thanks for all the excellent and time consuming work you do. All the best, Kathy P.S. I'll send a separate post on the Freeman's Oath. Thanks

at [email protected] <Access denied> and that's the reason you haven't received the list of researchers interested in Henry Brooks of Woburn. As soon as I hear from you that whatever the glitch is has been cleared up, I can resend to you. Sorry to trouble the list. Chris