the dickey family wrote: > Also, re settlers in CT prior to the pilgrims -- I don't have my "stuff" here to check, but I'm almost willing to swear there were pockets of settlers in CT, and also across the Sound, in Long Island, prior to the Mayflower's arrival. > This is veering off-topic (and I'm at work so I'm doing this from memory....) so I'll try to be brief (at least for me): First, if you have reputable sources about other early New England settlers & settlements, I be very interested in the citations, as I haven't run across such & I'm working on really learning colonial New England history. Second, what the basic story (as I understand it, from the reading I've done) is on North American settlement by Europeans: There were some traders in New England before the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth but the only two permanent settlements in North America (and even those tended to be heavily male, so the numbers of children born were very small) were in VA and FL. The Dutch colony of New Netherland (now New York) was first settled in 1624, with about 30 families, IIRC. A fort near what is now Albany, NY, had been started earlier (?1614) but there weren't any children of European descent born at the fort. Southold, NY, on Long Island, was the first English town in what is now NYS (although Southampton also claims that status); it was settled in 1640 by settlers from the New Haven Colony. Other early settlements on Long Island included the Dutch (starting in 1635 or 1636) Brooklyn, Amerfort (Flatlands), and Midwout (Flatbush) as well as the English Southampton (1640) and East Hampton (1648). There were also some French traders/trappers in Quebec fairly early on, but there were very few (no?) European women there, either -- the first real settlements in New France were in the mid-1630s. There was also a small Swedish settlement started in the 1630s in what is now Delaware. >From the official CT website, at http://www.sots.state.ct.us/RegisterManual/SectionI/seldates.htm <begin quote> SELECTED IMPORTANT DATES IN CONNECTICUT'S HISTORY Prepared by the Connecticut Historical Commission 1614--Adriaen Block, representing the Dutch, sails up the Connecticut River. 1633--The Dutch erect a fort, the House of (Good) Hope, on the future site of Hartford. 1633--John Oldham and others explore and trade along the Connecticut River. Plymouth Colony sends William Holmes to found a trading post at Windsor. 1634--Wethersfield founded by people from Massachusetts. 1634--First English settlers in Windsor arrive in summer. 1635--Fort erected at Saybrook by Lion Gardiner. 1635--Group from Dorchester, Massachusetts join Windsor settlement. 1636--Thomas Hooker and company journey from Newtown (Cambridge), Massachusetts to found Hartford. 1637--Pequot War. Captain John Mason leads colonists to decisive victory. 1638--New Haven Colony established by John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton. 1639--Fundamental Orders of Connecticut adopted by Freemen of Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor; John Haynes chosen first Governor. <end quote> If CT had settlers before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, I expect that they would let the world know, as would the Long Island towns (that bragging rights thing.......<g>). Overall, I still would be very skeptical of anyone claiming that a child of European descent was born in New England prior to 1620, unless I've missed something major in my research. BJ