Folks who are within driving distance of Grafton County, New Hampshire, or planning a summer visit to New England, may be interested in the resources at the Franconia Heritage Museum. The museum was founded with a bequest from a descendant of Luke Brooks, one of Franconia's early settlers, and endowed with a substantial collection of papers, diaries and artifacts collected over the years by Luke's descendants. Luke is claimed by the family as the first white man to spot the Old Man of the Mountain(s), the famous rock profile on the side of Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch. (Down in Woodstock, however, just the other side of the notch, they claim their own locals as the discoverers of the profile. <g>) This year's exhibit theme is Families of Franconia. I have contributed a 36x80-inch color ancestral chart showing the various Brooks families of Franconia down to the present, which will become a permanent exhibit at the museum. As part of this year's focus, visitors will be offered the opportunity to fill out family group sheets to add to the museum's genealogical records, and the collected information will be incorporated into a revised chart which will replace my preliminary effort next year. (I will immodestly offer that the chart's a corker! -- 15 generations in three lines of descent from Capt. Thomas Brooks of Concord.) If you have a Grafton County Brooks connection, you'll want to consider visiting the museum this year. (Memberships are always welcome as well, even if you live far away but want to support the effort.) The museum has a web page at http://www.magnetic-north.com/FHM/findex.html Note: The website's email link isn't regularly checked, so telephone is the recommended means of contact, or email me personally and I'll try to be your "man on the ground." Exhibit opening is May 16th. Line of descent is from Capt. Thomas/1 Brooks of Concord, MA. Chris Christopher Brooks, List Administrator: ==================================== BROOKS-NE (Brooks Families of New England), HAPGOOD, and MERRIAM lists at RootsWeb. ==================================== [email protected]