I've got a new and improved wild goose chase to suggest. :-) For years I've wondered if the IGI entries for some Brookses in southwestern New Hampshire, which are marked "Relative of Joseph Smith, the Prophet," might be accurate. A new correspondent, who is herself related to Joseph Smith, advises me that Smith is so well documented that any notation of a relationship to Joseph Smith is likely to have some basis in fact. That seems logical. .. Is anyone here descended from, or researching, or at all interested in, the following people? .. If so, are you familiar with a Joseph Smith connection? .. Does anyone here have a 2-book set answering to the description of "LDS Bio/Ency, a virtual who's who of the followers of Joseph Smith, Jr."? The individuals and families denoted in the IGI as Joseph Smith's relatives are marked with an *asterisk in the following table. ====================================== *John Drury BROOKS (1757-1832) + Martha PRENTICE Of Alstead, NH, and, late in life, Bethel, VT. CHILDREN: *Polly, b. 1779, m. Buckminster WOOD, 1800 *John (1782), of Langdon NH & Royalton VT + Permelia REED CHILDREN: Joshua (1812-1812) *Nathaniel Prentiss (1813) + Lucy S. FISK *Howard Wales (1816) Nelson Walker (1818-1820) *Alden Walker (1822) *Oliver Howard (1784) + Polly BURROUGHS *Sophia (1787) *Joshua (1790) + Polly EGERTON Austin (1793-1793) *Susanna (Suky) (1794) *Josiah Prentice (1797) + Betsey P. ROBBINS * Austin (1799) + Huldah ANDERSON *Martha (Patty) (1802) ====================================== The Brooks ancestral line is: 6. John Drury + Martha PRENTICE 5. Dea. Simon + Rachel DRURY 4. Ebenezer + Sarah FLETCHER 3. Noah + Dorothy POTTER 2. Dea. Joshua + Hannah MASON 1. Capt. Thomas + Grace ?WHEELER Since John Drury is the only son of Dea. Simon Brooks who is identified as related to Joseph Smith, it would seem that any direct connection to Joseph Smith is through his Prentice wife. There were several Brooks/Prentice (Prentiss) marriages at Alstead, and a number of later Prentices with the middle name of Brooks and Brookses with the middle name of Prentice. This is, by the way, the line of John Brooks Threlfall, author and researcher, who commissioned a statue of his ancestor Nathaniel Prentice as a minuteman which stands in Alstead today. On our list, I can think of Buzz Brooks and Jeff Miller, both of whom descend from Dea. Simon Brooks, but there are probably more. Chris