This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Amesbury, Barber, Burdick, Champlin, Clark(e), Lanphere, Stillman Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/XcB.2ACE/315 Message Board Post: The "brick wall" referenced in the subject line is the parentage, both paternal and maternal, of my earliest-known BARBER ancestor, one Amos. According to Francis D. Stillman Jr.'s 1989 "The Stillman Family" (and I have absolutely NO idea where Mr. Stillman got this information)Amos was born in Hopkinton 15 June 1765 and died in North Stonington, New London County, Connecticut in 1845. According to the records of what is now the First Hopkinton Seventh-day Baptist Church in Ashaway, Amos became a member of that church on 1 April 1786 (the day of "an exceeding snow storm"). He is listed as resident in Westerly, with one male 16 and over, one male under 16 and one female in his household in the first Federal census in 1790. That he married Keturah, daughter of John and Mary "Molly" (CLARK[E]) STILLMAN (born Westerly 28 September 1762, according to Francis Stillman Jr.) is shown by their mention in a 1792 Westerly probate record (6A:97, 260 according to Alden Beaman's "Wash! ington County Marriages From Probate Records," page 26). That the marriage took place sometime prior to 1790 is shown both by the 1790 census record and by his eldest son, Amos Jr.'s, 1832 obituary, which lists the age of the deceased as 42. (Amos Jr. left a widow, Lucinda [nee CHAMPLIN, daughter of Paris and Sabara (BURDICK) CHAMPLIN] and six children.)Other children were: Polly (probably named for her maternal grandmother, Mary (CLARK[E]) STILLMAN); Keturah (b. Westerly 9 September 1796, d. Westerly 1 September 1856) who married (as his second wife) Clarke LANPHERE; Henry (mentioned as deceased in an 1816 probate record - Beaman's "Washington County Births From Probate Records" page 23); and John (born Westerly 23 May 1800, died Napa, California 16 July 1870) who married (19 February 1826) Julia Ann AMESBURY. Can anyone help me solve the mystery of Amos Sr.'s parentage and early life? If you can, please do! Thank you in advance, and happy (ancestor) hunting! M. J. Barber