Hi Shannon, From: "Shannon" <pnuts@gorge.net> Sent: Saturday, January 01, 2005 10:46 PM > Greetings Friends: > > Awhile back, my LDS stepmother did me the favor of discovering that Mary Coffin Starbuck is a paternal ancestor of mine on my father's mother's side. <snip> It would be great to hear from others who have done research, perhaps visited Nantucket and seen the places these early Quakers lived, worked, preached and whaled etc....< > > My stepmother gave me a notebook which is about 6 inches thick and I need an interpreter to help me read!! She took the line back into England into possibly the 1400's. However, it was Mary who became the convinced Friend and so the line is not Quaker before her as far as I know.< There is a fair amount on Mary Coffin Starbuck in History of Nantucket by Alexander Starbuck, ch.XII. There are lengthy quotes from the journals of Thomas Chalkley, John Richardson, and Thomas Story of their visits to Nantucket and their meetings with various Friends there. As to tracing the Coffin line back, as far as I know it can be traced back only to the grandfather of the immigrant Tristram Coffin, ie. to one Nicholas Coffin who was buried 8 Oct 1613. All farther back people appear to have been based on the "conjecture" of Thomas Coffin Amory made about 1885. In the over 100 years since then, there has been zero proof found for his conjecture and many contra-indications have been found. I wrote a two-part message to the Coffin list with subject "The Boscawen Conjecture" back in Sept 2002 describing what I'd found on the subject. You can find it in the archives for the Coffin list. Regards, Howard hswain@ix.netcom.com