Hi All, Please allow me to think outloud here. I have been doing some reading and have seen mention of a group of Purtitans who left England in the late 1500's - early 1600s to settle in Holland due to the greater religious freedom offered there. I don't know the numbers of the people that went. Any of the articles I have read so far are vague about that. Most refer to a "large" group or "many" people immigrating. These same articles state that 60 to 70 of the same Puritans were, some twenty years later, members of the Mayflower group. This group is well documented (obviously) but I haven't found anything on the Puritans that stayed behind in Holland. The Mayflower Puritans, I'm pretty sure, arrived too early in North America for Thomas Brooks to have been among them. However, if Thomas arrived in North America in the late 1620s to early 1630s when he was in in his early twenties, time wise, it would have been possible for him to have been both born and married in Holland. Is it even remotely possible that Thomas (and maybe Grace) might have been born to one of those Puritan families in Holland and later on, say in the late 1620's or so, chose to join the other Puritans who were already established in North America, perhaps even relatives and friends. That would explain our lack of success in tracking down his family in the U.S.A. or England. (So would 2 world wars, fire and a lot of other things) Has anyone looked at a possible Dutch connection? I'm probably way off base but there's no harm in asking. Thanks, Penny Warne ----- Original Message ----- From: Christopher Brooks <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2002 3:45 AM Subject: Re: [BNE] HELP! Re: Grace WHEELER > On Fri, 22 Mar 2002 23:56:02 -0500, Craig Beeman wrote: > > :Just checked on World Connect and found some two hundred and forty > :nine files now there having one Henry BROOKS married to one Grace > :WHEELER. > : > :Found some sixty-nine files there having one Thomas BROOKS married > :to one Grace WHEELER. > > Should we take a poll? :-) As is well known, the internet has > contributed more genealogical misinformation in the last decade than > disconnected researchers were able to compile in the centuries > preceding. It only takes ONE idiot to get something wrong, or make it > up, and then submit it to the world by way of the Ancestral File or > the internet. Then the other 248 people Craig counted will mindlessly > cut and paste to their own site without rechecking anything. > > For a while I used to write folks whose websites have Henry Brooks > born to his second wife (no kidding!), ask them for their sources, > offer mine, and politely discuss the discrepancies. One in three > thanked me; one in three ignored me; one in three flamed me in reply. > I gave up when I realized that genealogy web pages are proliferating > faster than 10 of us could keep up with. Instead of tilting at > windmills as a one-man truth squad, I opted to launch this list. As > much as to share and to help make connections, the list was conceived > to counter, in some small way, the hemorrhage of misinformation that > has flooded the internet. > > :Might any one of you have even one solid primary source for a > :marriage of a Grace WHEELER to any Henry BROOKS during the early > :1600's. > :Same for a Grace WHEELER to any Thomas BROOKS during this same > :time period. > :It is of no consequence to me whether in North America or in the > :British Isles, but if any marriage has indeed been recorded for a > :Grace WHEELER and a Henry BROOKS or Thomas BROOKS, I would dearly > :appreciate learning of same! > > The death of Grace, wife of Thomas Brooks, is recorded in 1664 in the > vital records of Concord, MA. Henry's marriages are thoroughly > discussed in the literature (Cutter, NEHGS, Robert Peacock Brooks, > Richardson Memorial, Torrey, etc.). The information in those articles > has been summarized a number of times in posts to this list, and in > founder thumbnails we posted perhaps two years ago, and can be found > in the list archive. Folks new to these names can find more by > downloading the first issue of Tributaries, a Brooks genealogy > journal, at http://www.tributaries.org > Or I can send an annotated narrative and bibliography for either or > both of these men to anyone interested. > > I've found no marriage record for a Thomas Brooks/Grace ____ anywhere > in the literature in this country. Recently, using the IGI batch > number method that I posted to the list, I searched the indices of > every English parish available on LDS film with baptismal/marriage > records for the years 1590 to 1635. The results were no better. And > most recently, as I posted to the list, I searched all of East Anglia > and Lancashire in Boyd's Index of marriages. Once again, no > Thomas/Grace are found. > > And after weeks of combing English record indices, I can say that > there are many baptisms for men named Thomas, and some (but far > fewer) for men named Henry; but I haven't found a single Henry and > Thomas in the same parish at the same time. Furthermore, The Great > Migration series will, by the next series, have passed both Thomas > and Henry by, meaning, for all intents and purposes, that their > emigration will never be known if it's not found in the next two > years of coverage. It seems more likely as time passes that the > reason such records have never been found by many prior researchers > is that they simply don't exist. People have been looking for answers > to these questions for 150 years! Of course, I still hope ... > > Two things I hope to see before I die are a Red Sox World Series win > and the discovery of the origins of Thomas Brooks. I think the odds > of the Red Sox are somewhat higher. :-) > > Chris > > |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| > Christopher Hapgood Brooks > Researching BROOKS Families of New England > ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| > > > ==== BROOKS-NE Mailing List ==== > To unsub, send ONLY the word UNSUBSCRIBE to > [email protected] > or [email protected] > >