List Members, I am still trying to place my Asahel/Asa Brooks in a New England family. My Asahel Brooks is as follows: ASAHEL/ASA BROOKS b 1800 MA married early to mid 1820's to BETSY MEARS dau of Isaac Mears formerly of MA but is in the 1820 VT census, Bennington Co. Sandgate Twp. Asahel Brooks is in the following census: 1830 NY, Saratoga Co. Concord Twp 1840 IL, Rock Island Co. The Brooks arrive in Rock Island Co. between 1835-1838. ALSO arriving in Rock Island Co. IL at the same time is another Brooks family from New England. This second Brooks family is: WILLIAM BROOKS b 1783 Boston, MA d 1864 Rock Island Co. IL m HARRIET EAMES b NH Known children of Wiliam and Harriet (Eames) Brooks: William Eames Brooks b 1819 NH d 1885 Rock Island Co. IL Jeanette Brooks b 1824 George Brooks Does anyone have this William Brooks placed? Is this a coincidence that these two Brooks men, both born in MA, arrive in Rock Island County, Illinois at about the same time? Also, these are the only two Brooks listed in Rock Island County, IL in the 1840 census. Perhaps this William Brooks could be an older brother or uncle of my Asahel Brooks. Your comments will be appreciated. Thank you. Martha Heinrichs [email protected]

On Mon, 04 Mar 2002 16:56:34 -0700, Martha Heinrichs wrote: [snip] :ALSO arriving in Rock Island Co. IL at the same time is another :Brooks family from New England. This second Brooks family is: : :WILLIAM BROOKS b 1783 Boston, MA d 1864 Rock Island Co. IL m :HARRIET EAMES b NH : :Known children of Wiliam and Harriet (Eames) Brooks: William Eames :Brooks b 1819 NH d 1885 Rock Island Co. IL Jeanette Brooks b 1824 :George Brooks The IGI records the birth of a Harriet Brooks BELLOWS at Lancaster, NH, 26 Jun 1830; and the birth of a Harriet Brooks EAMES 1 Sep 1833 at Northumberland, NH. Since Northumberland (known by its village name of Groveton) is the next town northward up the Connecticut River from Lancaster, I've been inclined to consider these events somehow related despite the differing surnames. I'm sending them along because the dates and the names fit so well. Within the past couple of days I reposted a link for Hugh Wallis's IGI interface page, which allows you to search for a surname in a given locality in the British Isles and North America without a batch number. Unfortunately, a check just a moment ago indicates that the NH/US listings are spotty, and I don't see Lancaster or Northumberland there. Hugh did the UK first and has really just started coding the US batch numbers, I think, so you might want to bookmark the site and check back in a month. This link will break into two lines, which you'll need to reassemble in the address box of your browser. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.ht m#Menu :Does anyone have this William Brooks placed? Is this a :coincidence that these two Brooks men, both born in MA, arrive in :Rock Island County, Illinois at about the same time? Also, these :are the only two Brooks listed in Rock Island County, IL in the :1840 census. :Perhaps this William Brooks could be an older brother or uncle of :my Asahel Brooks. He could well be ... brothers and other family groupings often remove together. The concurrent arrival in IL is additionally suggestive. The problem with any William is, which one? At that point in time there might have been 300 men living named William Brooks, each of them descending in one or the other of the various New England lines. It's lot easier when the name is unusual, like Barnabas or Marmaduke or something. Chris

On Mon, 04 Mar 2002 16:56:34 -0700, Martha Heinrichs wrote: :I am still trying to place my Asahel/Asa Brooks in a New England :family. My Asahel Brooks is as follows: : :ASAHEL/ASA BROOKS b 1800 MA married early to mid 1820's to BETSY :MEARS dau of Isaac Mears formerly of MA but is in the 1820 VT :census, Bennington Co. :Sandgate Twp. :Asahel Brooks is in the following census: 1830 NY, Saratoga Co. :Concord Twp 1840 IL, Rock Island Co. The Brooks arrive in Rock :Island Co. :between 1835-1838. Could your Asa/Asahel have backtracked from west to east? (Yes, I know it's improbable, but ...) 1850 Census, Porter, Oxford, ME, recorded 9/05/1850: Asahel Brooks, 50 Betsy C., 45 Samuel, 24 Betsy A., 22 Timothy, 21 Lucy, 10 Asahel Jr., 8 Chris

On Mon, 04 Mar 2002 16:56:34 -0700, Martha Heinrichs wrote: :I am still trying to place my Asahel/Asa Brooks in a New England :family. My Asahel Brooks is as follows: : :ASAHEL/ASA BROOKS b 1800 MA married early to mid 1820's to BETSY :MEARS dau of Isaac Mears formerly of MA but is in the 1820 VT :census, Bennington Co. :Sandgate Twp. Since I can't find your Asa's birth in Massachusetts vitals, I tried MEARS, also found as Mear, Meare, Mere, and Meers. I found ONE and only one Isaac, and then searched for related records and associated given names, with the following results. Sources are fully itemized following the extracted listings. BILLERICA, 290: MEARS, Isaac and Polly Long of Tewksbury, Nov. 24, 1796, in Tewksbury.* * Intention not recorded. TEWKSBURY, 66: MEARS, Anna, d. Thomas and Lydia, May 28, 1779. Betty, d. Thomas and Lydia, May 31, 1768. Isaac, s. Thomas and Lydia, Mar. 17, 1773. Lydia, d. Thomas and Lydia, Feb. 2, 1764. Nathan, s. Thomas and Lydia, Apr. 12, 1775. TEWSKBURY, 67: Roger, s. Thomas and Lydia, Mar. 2, 1771. Thomas, s. Thomas and Lydia, May 15, 1761. Thomas, s. Tho[ma]s, bp. May 25, 1766. C.R.1. <C.R.1. = Congregational Church records> TEWKSBURY, 158: MEARS, Isaac, of Billerica, and Polly Long, Nov. 24, 1796.* * Intention also recorded. Tho[ma]s, and Lydia Carleton, Jan. 11, 1763. C.R.1. TEWKSBURY, 230: MEARS, Roger, s. Tho[ma]s, killed with a cart, Oct. 19, 1781, in his 16th y. C.R.1. DRACUT, 214: MEARS, Lydia of Billerica, and Joshua Thestle, int. May 6, 1786. Note that these are all in northern Middlesex County. That suggests a search of neighboring Essex County, but I don't have this particular CD. To follow up on Essex County, here's a link for a site listing volunteers who'll do lookups in this particular series of CDs: http://john-slaughter.rootsweb.com/Mass_VRs.html I also searched Worcester County and the four western counties (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire). Be advised that the following communities weren't searched, as their records are not included on my CDs: MIDDLESEX: Pepperell, Townsend WORCESTER: Paxton, Lunenberg WESTERN COUNTIES: There are as many towns NOT included on the CD as are included. Many of the smallest towns have never published their vitals. For the missing towns the researcher is referred to the Corbin collection (housed at the Athenaeum, Pittsfield, MA) or to Jay Mack Holbrook of ?Oxford?, MA, a researcher and microfiche vendor whose URL i posted a couple of weeks ago. Holbrook has privately filmed most of the "missing" towns' records. NOT SEARCHED at all: Essex, Plymouth, Norfolk, Bristol, Barnstable, and Dukes Counties. (Given the finds in Middlesex, only Essex among these is likely to be helpful, I'd guess.) SOURCES: (These CDs are page scans of the published volumes, not typed transcriptions) "Vital Records of Billerica, Massachusetts, To the Year 1850." Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1908. Digitally reproduced on CD-ROM "Early Vital Records of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, To About 1850" (Wheat Ridge, CO: Search and ReSearch Publishing, 1998). "Vital Records of Tewksbury, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849." Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1912. Digitally reproduced on CD-ROM "Early Vital Records of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, To About 1850" (Wheat Ridge, CO: Search and ReSearch Publishing, 1998). "Vital Records of Dracut, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, To the year 1850." Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1907. Digitally reproduced on CD-ROM "Early Vital Records of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, To About 1850" (Wheat Ridge, CO: Search and ReSearch Publishing, 1998). Hope this helps, Chris