Brooks Snyder wrote: > Capt. Brooks probably referred to my gg-grandfather, > alternately listed as MDFH and MLFH Brooks. (Marriage > records show his name to be Marcus LaFayette Brooks.) > Marcus lost his oldest son John to the Civil War. He had > 2 other sons, James & William, daughters Elizabeth, Emma, > Alice. Marcus was a lifelong Episcopalian – so is the > remainder of the line to me. He died July 6, 1876 in New > Orleans. There were a pair of brothers, Samuel and William Brooks, sons of Deacon Samuel of Exeter, NH, who went to Natchez, Mississippi Territory, circa 1800, and stayed. I revisited them last night, but only William had a son, and he died at age 3. This family is very well documented in James Emery Brooks, "My Great Grandfather's House in Exeter, N.H.," which was privately published around 1930 and revised around 1946. I moved in November and many boxes are still unpacked, including that which contains the photocopy of the J.E. Brooks book. I mention this because my best recollection is that one of the Natchez brothers may have had a nephew who came down from New England to join him in Mississippi. The author includes some correspondence and I *think* one letter references a nephew's arrival. This is at best a longshot — did the nephew remain, or return North? — but the locale is proximate to Tennessee, the two brothers achieved some distinction (one state treasurer, the other a county sheriff), and the brothers were ancestral cousins of Rev. Phillips and Abigail Brown Brooks. (These latter two were born two generations later than the Natchez brothers.) So you might look into this nephew … Carolyn Enders Balkum, who may or may not subscribe to this list, has a photocopy of the book which I sent to her. (She's a descendant of one of the brothers, and thus the go-to person on these guys.) For reasons of privacy and spam protection, I won't include her email address here, but if you don't hear from her in reply to this posting within a few days, contact me offlist and I'll send along her e-dress. You can tell her I'm sorry for previously mocking former Red Sox and current Astros pitcher Roger Clemens, he of the 1.11 ERA. (They live in the same town.) :-) > I’m not ready to discount the family lore because other > stories have checked out. For example, according to > family lore, William was acquainted with & a neighbor of > Andrew Jackson. I haven’t been able to check deeds, but > their names are listed side by side on some tax rolls. > It’s said William was prosperous from business as a > merchant and shipper. And its said that William descended > from a family of merchants and shippers between Boston > and England. In the mid 1940’s my grandfather Howard > Brooks (and his brother another William Brooks) received > an attorney’s letter regarding an inheritance share of > Brooks property in Quincy, MA. By all means, don't discount anything automatically. My point was that I have corresponded with dozens if not hundreds of folks reporting a family legend that they were related to Phillips Brooks. (Ditto, on a lesser scale, Gov. John Brooks, who was an intimate of George Washington.) Some turned out to be, and just as many turned out not to be. Legends grow in their repetition. If it turns out that you descend from the NH/Natchez Brooks nephew, and are thus a distant cousin of Phillips Brooks, then you'll have found the grain of sand (truth) which over the years produced the elaborate pearl around it. > I have materials from trying to research backwards from > the Phillips Brooks and Abigail Brown Brooks lines, but I > would welcome yours so that I can compare. I will send you ancestral files for both offlist. Warning: they will be lengthy and semi-unedited. Just as it's the barber's son who always needs a haircut, so it's my own line which is most in need of editing and cleanup. Again, please see the Tributaries web site for the Reverend's biography, as the file version will be nothing but disjointed, raw notes. Chris |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Christopher Brooks BROOKS Families of New England http://www.tributaries.org ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||