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By LEE MEADE

When English immigrant William Mead arrived in Stamford, Conn., in the early stages of the winter of 1641, he brought with him a wife and three children. Despite years of research by some of the world's finest genealogists, few other facts are known.

It is believed the Meads came from Watford, a small town in the parish of Hertfordshire on the outskirts of London. Gordon Remington, writing in The American Genealogist, reported William was the son of Priscilla Mead (masculine name) and Dorothy Grey, and was born December 27, 1592. But, beyond that, most evidence about the origin of the 363-year-old immigrant Mead family remains obscured.

Remington wrote William's wife was named Philipe (believed to be Philippa) and they had four children, two daughters and two sons. The children were named Mary, Joseph, Martha and John. Mary died young, but the other three accompanied their parents to the New World. How they got there and when they came are questions locked in the past.

Even when Philippa died during an outbreak of malaria in Stamford on Sept. 15, 1657, official town records listed her death simply as "Philippa Mead, William's wife."  By then, the children were grown. Even a burial spot in Cos Cob, Connecticut, in memory of the Mead family lists only William and the three children.

A baptismal certificate uncovered by Remington in Watford indicates Joseph was born in 1623, although Joseph contradicted the fact by stating in a Connecticut court appearance his birth was in 1630.

Joseph was not an educated barrister, but he was a trusted representative of the people and appeared in their behalf in court a number of times. His most provocative case was the defense of his sister, Martha, when she was charged with fornication outside of marriage and ordered to stand trial before the magistrates in New Haven. He also defended his younger brother, John, a rebellious man in his youth, on several occasions.

Martha's trial was the subject of a scandalous indictment and actually occurred after the fact. She was engaged to John Richardson in 1653 when she became pregnant out of wedlock. Richardson took her to Roxbury, Mass., to avoid the public scorn, but the baby died within its first month. They returned to Stamford and when the secret leaked out several months later, charges were filed against her in New Haven.

Martha, who suffered from epilepsy, maintained she had been taken advantage of during the ordeal, probably at the boarding house where she was employed, and she did not know who her assailant was. Richardson denied responsibility. Several Stamford townsfolk spoke in her defense, but the court did not believe them, or Martha. They found her guilty and sentenced her to a public flogging and fine. The flogging was suspended because she was pregnant again, this time by Richardson, her husband, when the trial began.

John, an excitable young man, seemed to be a public nuisance. His temper incensed a number of Stamford residents and resulted in several legal challenges against him. He did serve a brief term in a New Haven jail. However, he married Hannah Potter, whose father was one of the wealthiest men in Stamford, and became a revered and respected pillar of the community. He put together the group that raised the money to purchase the land upon which Greenwich, Connecticut, was built.

Later in life, both Joseph and John represented Greenwich in the legislature at New Haven.

The Encyclopedia of Biography on pages 30 and 31 has high words of praise for William. It reads: "William was born in England, about 1600. He was married, about 1625, and died in Stamford, Connecticut, about 1663. He was a man of great fearlessness of spirit, perhaps not as outspoken as some men of that day, but holding to the principles which he believed to be right, and willing, for their sake, to face the unknown. He was a man of uncompromising attitude, never satisfied short of the utmost possibility. He came to the Massachusetts colony in the summer of 1635, then pressed farther inland, and settled in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Later he removed to Stamford, Connecticut, and was granted land there on December 7, 1641. His wife's death is recorded on September 19, 1657."

There are no references cited for the above material and much of it may represent an educated guess by the writer. 

His children, as reported by Remington, included: Mary, born in 1622, who may have died young; Joseph, born in 1623; Martha, born in 1628, and John, born in 1630. All birth dates for William's family are several years earlier than those recorded in Salt Lake City in the highly respected genealogical records by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

It is believed the Meads may have been early followers of Rev. Richard Denton, who led a group of colonists from Watertown to Wethersfield to Stamford and to Hempstead. There is no documented evidence William ever lived in Watertown or Wethersfield, but he was among those who showed up in Stamford in 1641and was granted a homelot. Rev. Denton took another contingent from Stamford to Hempstead, Long Island, in 1644. Joseph and John Mead joined him, but not until about 1657. Despite the presence of their old friends in Hempstead, the Meads did not give up their ties in Connecticut. A few years later, they returned to Connecticut.

Soon after her conviction in New Haven, Martha and her husband moved to Westchester County, N.Y., where they raised three daughters: Bethia, Elizabeth and Mary. Joseph married Mary Brown and had six children. They were Zachariah, Joseph II, Mary, Elisha, Daniel and Richard. John and Hannah's 11 children included: John II, Jonathan, Joseph, Ebenezer, Benjamin, Hannah, David, Nathaniel, Samuel, Abigail and Mary Elizabeth.

After building a house in Stamford, William remained there the rest of his life. Philippa died in 1657 and William passed away in 1663. There were still 114 years remaining until the Declaration of Independence and the start of the Revolutionary War.

Hopefully, with a small army of Mead genealogists surfing the internet and searching records in public storage houses across England and in the U.S., the long wait will not continue much longer. Still needed are the name of the ship that carried William Mead and his family to the New World, sailing dates, ports of embarkation and debarkation and a starting point for their life in America. 

By LEE MEADE

I can count the number of genealogical novels I have read on one finger. That's right, one!

Well, now, there are two! The most recent is a 286-page publication by Goodwyfe Press, 3285, Canyon Drive #58, Billings, MT 59102. Their webpage is at www.goodwyfe.com.

Danielle Skjelver, a genealogist of considerable note, has gone back to the early American colonial times of our ancestors to trace the hardships of life in Connecticut during the Pequot War, Queen Anne's War and the 1704 raid on the pioneer village of Deerfield, Mass.

Her characters include names with which we are all familiar: Orcutt, Hawks, Mead, Baldwin, Scott and Catlin.

She also discusses a compelling message in describing the fighting between the white people and Indians. "When white people slaughter hundreds of Indians, it is a battle," she says. "When Indians do the same, it is a massacre."

Skjelver has drawn the facts for her story from the collection of her great-grandmother, Florence Pluma Waters Orcutt, who recorded all she knew of her children's history. "Without her notes, I would never have discovered this story," Skjelver wrote. "She gave flesh and blood to long forgotten names."

"Massacre: Daughter of War" is not a book for the faint of heart. It is violent, graphic and chilling. Among the grim portrayals is the "skinning" of a pioneer frontiersman by savage Indians. But, Skjelver's book never loses its sense of historic heritage. And, it leads the reader through the dangerous intrigue and adventure of colonial life without pulling any punches. The often divergence of opinion of the French missionaries in Canada and the puritanical English is an important sidebar.

Hannah Hawks Scott is the "daughter of war," although it is her husband, Jonathan, and their children, John and Junior, who seem to be the principal characters of the book. Their capture and life among the Indians introduces an intriguing sub-plot to the book, and carries the reader to the final page.

Skjelver's writing style is easy to follow. She uses short, simple sentences and ties them together in a manner that makes it easy to understand. Personally, I like historical novels, and this one gets a thumbs up!  

I purchased "MASSACRE, Daughter of War" by mail order through www.Amazon.com for $15.00, plus $3.99 shipping and handling. It was delivered to my door in five days.

The search goes on

I can remember well the occasion when I strolled down an aisle in the genealogy room of the public library in Stamford, Connecticut.

It was some 20 years ago and I was in absolute awe with all the books that had been written about our ancestors. I didn't know what I was looking for. I was simply basking in the surroundings. Then, at the turn of a corner, it was there: Dr. Spencer P. Mead's history of the Mead Family in America.

Like most of us, I didn't start my collection with a single name. My grandfather sent me a copy of his family tree from time to time, a second cousin had me on the mailing list of his newsletter and an uncle recruited me on one of his visits to our home. Finally, one day after all three were gone, I curiously decided to look into it. But, it was the moment I saw Dr. Mead's book on the shelf in Stamford when the genealogy bug bit.

It was tedious work then. All the data was stored in personal or courthouse records, sometimes tucked away in family Bibles or scribbled on the back of photographs. Everything was written by hand. You didn't lug a typewriter around as we now carry portable computers. But, the quest always seemed to be worth the effort.

Today, we have made considerable progress. We have disproved a possible relationship between Gabriel and William Mead. We have sorted out William's wives, and agreed on one. And, we have made great progress recreating the early generations of their family life in America.

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The changing tech of genealogy

Tracing our family roots is a far-cry from our starting point of 20 years ago. Now, I am able to do more things in an evening on the computer in the comfort of my home office than I could do in a week on the road.

I also have memberships with Family Treemaker and RootsMagic, my two software programs. I subscribe to Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com, although they recently combined into one. Although they still operate as separate entities, I am having some difficulty determining why I should keep both of them.

There was a time when I belonged to a number of different genealogical groups, although I have dropped most of them to concentrate more effectively on several of the groups closest to my family grandparents. They are Mead, Pearson, Wolcott and Godward on my side and Wulf, Hvam, Johannessen and Ehlers on my wife's.

What seems to be the most significant change was joining a research group (www.meadresearchers@yahoo.com) which concentrates upon the first coming of the Mead family to America, the first generation of their lives in Stamford and their migration to Dutchess County, N.Y. I heartily recommend it to anyone who has connections to those areas. With 21 members, we have been able to grow our own files by sharing among us.  

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The future is ahead for all of us

There have been many advantages to having a hobby such as genealogy. One of the greatest is getting to know (via the internet) the many extended family members who are researching their own groups. I try to answer every e-mail message I receive at www.leemeaderoots@aol.com and often the exchange of correspondence continues. Many of these modern-day Pen Pals become close internet friends, even if we have never been able to meet face-to-face.

Needless to say, over the years our base of names has grown to almost unmanageable proportions. We now have more than 15,000 Mead or Meade extended family members included in our data. With increasing years creeping up, we regret only the lack of time to continue our research.

We concentrate our attention now on writing stories about the leading characters that have been found among ancestors past and adding as many photographs as possible to our collection.

We're still seeking that future genealogist who will carry the line forward. Fortunately, there are a few prospects, but as of yet they aren't aware of what I have in mind for them. In the meantime, I'm just attempting to clean up the scrapbook a bit.

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A word of "Thanks"

For those among you who offered your prayers and good wishes for our daughter's recent recovery from breast cancer, she is doing well. She had the necessary surgery and resultant chemotherapy treatments. We appreciate all of the calls, e-mail messages and letters. It is heartwarming to know such a support group is present when it is needed. "Thanks" to everyone.  

By CAROLYN MEAD HILDEBRAND

The Mead surname DNA project now has 10 members, with results of eight tests back from the labs.

Six of the members share common DNA, proving they descend from immigrant William Mead. He was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England, on Dec. 27, 1592, came to the American colonies about 1635 and died in Stamford, Conn., about 1663.

A seventh member's test results indicate they could share a common ancestor, while the eighth definitely is of no relation to William but likely is descended from the Irish (Meagh) lines who settled in Virginia. 

Readers who are considering DNA testing might ask: "What can I learn by joining the Mead surname DNA project?"

Undoubtedly, a male Mead now can learn whether or not he descends from William's line by participating in the basic 12-marker test. In the future, as more results are gathered, descendants of William's sons, Joseph and John, might be identified through the 25- and 37-marker testing. Also, a larger membership will increase the probability of identifying descendants of Gabriel (or Goodman), Richard and the Irish Mead (Meagh) lines.

As administrator of the Mead surname project, the most frequent question I receive is: "Which test should I order?"

Three levels of DNA testing are available. The 12-marker test will prove or disprove relationship to other members of the project. A difficult concept to grasp is that DNA testing results give probabilities, not definite facts, concerning the identity of a shared common ancestor.

The 12-marker test can give a 50 percent probability of a shared common ancestor within the last 14 generations or approximately 400 to 500 years. The more refined 25-marker test can cut down the 50 percent probability of a shared common ancestor to seven generations. The most extensive 37-marker test will provide a 50 percent probability of a shared ancestor within five generations.

If a prospective member simply wishes to confirm a relationship to one of the four Mead lines described above, the 12-marker test can do so. However, the 37-marker test is needed to show linkages to branches within a specific line. In addition, it is less expensive to order the 37-marker test when joining the project versus upgrading at a later time. Five members have already upgraded their tests from 12 to 25 or 37 markers. Future reports will share their findings.

A large degree of the Mead surname DNA project depends upon the entire membership and their willingness to share results. Lineage is not proven from the results of a single person's test, but rather by comparing it with the results of other members. There is a special need to those with documented lineage to Gabriel, Richard or the Irish branch to join the project. By doing so, you will contribute much to the genealogical research of all Meads in the project.

It has been determined the Meads of the 1600s and early 1700s were a close-knit clan. They lived near each other, intermarried and often moved as a group. However, in the latter 17th century, there was a great dispersal of the family. As these Meads followed the adventurous spirit which brought their ancestors to the new world generations before, records of many family lines were lost. Now, over two centuries later, Meads are working together as pioneers in the new DNA scientific testing tool.

It's a way to bridge the missing generations and fill in the names that have slipped away through many years of relocation, westward expansion and cultural revolution.

(Additional information on DNA testing and the Mead surname project can be obtained at www.familytreedna.com. Information on how to become a member of the project is available at the Mead surname site by contacting Carolyn Mead Hildebrand at www.noelcaro@aol.com with further questions.)

On the move

Before our next quarterly issue is on the internet, we will have returned to our home in Texas. Please write us or send correspondence to:

Lee Meade, Mead-e Family Tree, PO Box 7974, Horseshoe Bay, TX 78657.

To reach us by e-mail, write: www.leemeaderoots@aol.com.

If you want to help

This publication is supported totally by donations. If you would like to help, contributions can be sent to the Mead-e Family Tree at the address above. One hundred percent of any funds received will be used to defray the expenses of producing the newsletter.