In message <ya%Y7.35148$AS4.3041861@news20.bellglobal.com> "Steve Brown" <slsb1@sympatico.ca> wrote: > > In the history of ancestors in Boston area around 1650 I see many men > "Became a freeman on MMDDYYYY". > These guys were not slaves, what does the note refer too? > Probably indentured servants who had to work for an employer for a given period of time in return for their passage to the New World. Once their period of indenture was up they became freemen.. Five years appears to have been a common period. A system that lasted into the 19th century at least -- Graeme Wall My genealogy website: <http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/genealogy/index.html>