This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/kIZ.2ACEB/1071.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: I gathered these notes many years ago and no longer remember the sources so take this only as a guide and nor as "gospel". Richard Goard (1618-1683) of Roxbury, Mass. Came to America in 1635, married 1639 to Phebe Howes. She died 1678. Their children included five daughters Hannah 1641, Mary 1644, Phebe 1646, Sarah 1649, Lydia 1653. Sons were John 1643, Joseph 1647 who died at age eight months, Joseph (again) 1651, Benjamin 1654 , died soon after birth, Benjamin (again), executed at age eighteen, crime not specified by my sources. JOHN 1643. Joseph II (1651-1691) of Roxbury and Hadley. married Ann Chaplin in 1681. Had four daughters, no sons. Ann 1682, Sarah 1684 , died in a few months, Mary 1687, Sarah (again) 1691. This leaves only John as a son to have possibly continued the GOARD/GOAD name. He is given as John GOAD. He is of the right age to have been the father of Abraham of Richmond County, Va. BUT - no one has ever shown any evidence that this John Goad ever left Massachusetts or that Abraham was born there. In the absence of any such evidence, the parentage of Abraham remains unresolved.. --- Ken