Hello, I believe I made a statement a day or two ago which I need to retract. It is in regards to the WELLINGTON surname ! My great-great-grandfather was born Charles Wellington RICE in 1850 in Lubec, Maine. And, my "guess" is that he was given his middle name because of the "Duke of Wellington." And, I had made a statement that my sister thought we had a WELLINGTON on our family tree, and I doubted it. But, while going through boxes of genealogy papers last night looking for something, I was reminded of some VERY OLD papers I had borrowed from my sister several years ago! One of them is a very small book, entitled: "A few facts concerning Roger WELLINGTON and some of his descendants" "To my Dear Nieces and Nephews: I have gathered these few pages of records and reminiscences in the hope that they may foster in you a love for your ancestors. A. W. GRISWOLD, Belmont, July 1892." It really should be called a booklet as it is only 26 pages, and yet it is an official, hard-cover book. This copy of the book has many hand-written notes in it, and has a few obituaries / death notices taped to the inside cover. One of them is from the "Arlington Advocate" from Feb. 1903: HORACE H. HOMER "The entire community was surprised and deeply pained on Wednesday to lear of the death of Mr. H. H. Homer, which occurred at 3:30 that morning, at his late residence on the GRAY estate, one of the oldest landmarks on Pleasant Street. Although the deceased has been ill for nearly a year and confined to the house most of the time since last August, with what was first called Sciatica ..... Mr. Homer was the third son of William F. and Adeline (Wellington) Homer, of Belmont, who resided in the house just opposite Town Hall in that town. ...." Handwritten on the inside cover is: 1892 - From Mrs. Adaline Wellington (Homer) Griswold of Concord Avenue in Belmont, widow of Charles .... (Mrs. Griswald was born in Boston in 1832.) I can't offer how the HOMER name enters our family-tree at this moment; I would need to refer to my sister's notes. But, it most definitely would be in the extended family-tree of our great-grandmother, Louise Wellington (RICE) KIDDER, who was born in Winchester in 1876. Her father, Charles Wellington RICE was born in 1850 in Lubec, ME, and he came down to Boston and met and married Adelaide Crosby HUTCHINSON of Winchester, MA. Adelaide came from two important families: the HUTCHINSON's of 1800's Winchester, and the CROSBY's of 1800's Arlington (West Cambridge). And, many "Arlington surnames" are on that combined family-tree ! This book starts out: ".... Roger Wellington, the founder of his family in America, was born in England about 1609. He came to this country in 1630 and in 1636 bought fourteen acres of land on the border of Watertown and Cambridge, now called Belmont. Here he settled, and at about the same time married Mary, eldest daughter of Dr. Richard Palgrave of Charlestown who is mentioned in books of that time as "a right godly man and skillfull surgeon.' ...." That's all I can offer today ! But, I would like to make a comment or two: Wouldn't it be nice if in the days we live in today -- we could take a part of our family tree - or all of it - and have an official "book publisher" be willing to publish our family-tree book or booklet ! Also, our family was somewhat lucky ! Some of our ancestors (or members of their family) took a strong interest in "their roots." And, I believe it was Edith Crosby RICE, b1878 Winchester, who had two passions ! She was a life-long Children's Librarian in Arlington ! And, she spent many years researching her family-tree, concentrating a lot on the HUTCHINSON's of Charlestown and then Winchester ! And, my sister started her part of the research because of an "antique photo album" retrieved from one of the "HUTCHINSON Farms" in Winchester before it was sold in 1958 ! (It's the rest of our family-tree -- which has "many" brick-walls ! Or, solidly built, concrete-block walls, put together with reinforced cement !) :o) Betty (near Lowell, MA)