Hi again, Did you ever pick up a book (at home or in a library) and open it to a page - where you find something of interest to you? (Happens to me all the time.) This morning I just opened the "history of Billerica" and came on the page for the KENDALL name. That is a name which is not mentioned too often. There is only a half-page on the name, but it starts out: "KENDALL. Jacob, was son of Francis, of Woburn, where the births of 19 children are recorded, and may be found in the history of Woburn. But he seems to have lived in Billerica long enough to secure a record here of the birth of his 20th child. Jacob, the son of Jacob and Alice KENDALL, was b. July 21, 1717." ... And someone on a CLARK Board was mentioning a CLARK family in early Tewksbury. Since Tewksbury annexed off of Billerica in the 1730's, I checked the Billerica book to see if the CLARK name is mentioned. But, there are only a few, very brief mentions of CLARK in the Billerica book. But one mention is of a Rev. Thomas CLARK who m. 1702 to an Elizabeth STEARNS. It says he was the pastor of the church in Chelmsford from 1678 to his death in 1704. Oh, just noticed they were only married for 2 yrs. Elizabeth had one daughter born after her husband's death. Samuel and Abigail (CLARK) GREEN had important descendants. .. I don't remember at this second why I opened to the STICKNEY page, but I saw this: "7. Jonathan, son of Daniel, 3, b. 1736 .. m. Silence ______. He enlisted for the invasion of Canada, 1759; was at Bunker Hill and in other Revolutionary service; and in 1785, as a Major, led the Billerica Artillery, in a snow-storm to Cambridge to guard the Supreme Judicial Court during Shay's Rebellion; d. 1802 .... and his widow .. d. 1807.... CH: Silence, b1758 .. m. Benjamin BOWERS ...." The reason this paragraph caught my eye is that unusual names given to babies are being discussed on other Lists. And I mentioned that sometimes babies who are "stillborn" or die shortly after birth are given the name, Silence. So, I was surprised to see that a baby girl with that name - grew to adulthood ! (And her daughter with same name did.) Just an FYI for you. Betty (near Lowell, MA) (The only name above which is on my family-tree is CLARK. One of my "concrete-block walls" is a James CLARK born 1790-1800 "somewhere." He seems to have been a "travelin' man" going to many countries. The only child I know of was Mary Anna CLARK, b~1836 in Westport, MA. She grew up to become Mrs. John DEXTER of Killingly, CT. In ~1885 they moved to Melrose, MA, and in 1892 adopted a little girl; they renamed her Mary Anna Clark DEXTER - who became my grandmother. Adding to that, when "May" married in 1911, she wrote down that William CLARK was her birth-father. We have no idea who that was.) FYI: If you want people in the future to find your old postings, you need to type a space between the surnames you are discussing: For example, DEXTER / CLARK. If you search for DEXTER in the "Archive Search" feature, it won't show up if the names are typed: DEXTER/CLARK.