About Family Tree of Avery and Cabot Brown
Please sign in to see more. November 25, 2011
Dear Family Members,
Originally this web site began as a tribute to my parents, William and Winifred Brown, but as the data started to accumulate on my wife's side (79 Lambert's at last count!), I realized that the tree is more for the benefit of our children, Avery Lambert Brown and William Cabot Brown. The tree begins with them and heads backwards in time through 15 generations to the late 15th century in at least one line of the family. Another line of the family, starting with my own children and going through the Lamberts, can be traced back to the last "witch" hung in Salem, Mary (Towne) Easty 1692. One just never knows where research will take you!
The project started in the 1980s when my father started thinking about all the people he had grown up with in Lancaster in England. He impressed upon me that he could remember just about everyone, where they lived, and what they did once they attained adulthood. Not one to leave well enough alone, my Dad continued to batter me with information, bemoaning the fact that no one seemed to be interested in all that he knew. I must admit that I was not as receptive as I could have been, but I did encourage him to start putting it on paper. Dad was never much of a writer, so I suggested another strategy. I recommended that he make a map of the streets of Lancaster, draw in the residences and other buildings, and then give numbers to the structures. Once he finished with that, which I suspected would take him months if not years, then he might consider listing people's names next to the numbers and record what he knew about them with regard to birth dates, death dates, jobs, etc.
When I next saw Dad several weeks later he proudly showed me half a dozen or so hand-drawn maps that he had assembled. He also produced a sheaf of papers that listed hundreds of names, people he had known from all walks of life in early twentieth-century Lancaster. Being a close family, in proximity if not sentiment, many of the people turned out to be my relatives, and it was then that I started to realize the importance of the work that Dad was doing. Because my father had always been a stickler for detail, I am relatively sure that the names, birth dates, etc. that he provided are accurate information. When puzzled, he didn't hesitate to ask survivors in Lancaster to seek out St. Marys parish church for copies of birth, death and/or marriage certificates. I have these in my files and they have been most helpful, but the bulk of the genealogical information presented here, for his side of the family at least, was generated from his memory. A volume titled "William Brown's Lancaster Quayside in the 1920's," was edited by me in 1991 and deposited in both the Lancaster Museum and the Lancaster City library. Hopefully it is still in these repositories.
My mother was somewhat concerned about my growing interest in Dad's side of the family; so, not to be outdone, she drew up charts of her side of the family and supplied me with reasonably equivalent genealogical data. I say "reasonably" because although my mother was a warm and loving woman, she did not worry about details to the extent of my father. Consequently, I am not quite so certain about the dates given for births, deaths, marriages and the like for her kin. With that said, I am confident that the genealogical connections, as to who was related to whom, names of offspring, etc., are indeed correct.
As my mother's maiden name was also Brown and my father's family had a preference for the name William, keeping things straight has been somewhat of a challenge. Help is requested from relatives who read this web site to set me straight on questionable dates and to fill in blanks. If in tracing various lines the reader happens to see any inaccuracies, please do send me a note and I will make the appropriate adjustments, giving you full credit for your assistance of course. Also, I encourage the reader to provide me with any interesting biographical facts, stories, or pictures that relate to the members of your own family tree. I will add this information to the individual entries so that interested readers will be able to learn more about the people whose blood runs through our veins.
My mother and father were pack rats when it came to photos. Soon after Nancy and I married I decided to put many of these loose images into a family album and presented it to them as a Christmas gift. They appreciated the gesture, but knew of many more images that I had left out. Some years later I assigned catalog numbers to the various pictures and then met with my parents to discuss them. To cut down on unnecessary arguments, I found that this exercise was best done when I interviewed them separately. Fortunately, in comparing responses I found that there really was a reasonable level of overlap to what they had to say. I have now digitized most of these photographs and have made up detailed captions based on my parents' comments. Unfortunately the web site only permits one image per person, which limits what I can share with you. If any family members are interested in seeing the other images, do let me know and I will burn a cd and forward it to you. In the interests of privacy, I have only included images on this website for people who are deceased or if the pictures were taken a half century or so ago. I do not feel at all comfortable including images without having the permission of the person in question, but if you would like to be included I would be more than happy to oblige. If there is one picture of yourself that you would like everyone to remember you by, please send it to me and I will enter it into the site.
I would be remiss in my duties if I did not recognize the work that two members of Nancy's family put into gathering genealogical information. Her Aunt Evelyn (Lambert) Hunt and her great uncle Don Lambert Sr. deserve many accolades for their monumental efforts in tracking down family members. Needless to say, I drew heavily from their records in filling in the maternal side of Avery and Cabot's tree. Plus, anyone doing genealogical studies must offer thanks to the efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in drawing all people together into one big network. God Bless them!
This project has been a lot of fun to work on, but it really is still only in its beginning stage. There are many gaps that need to be filled, so I am appealing to family members to help. Some of the strongest trees in the world are oaks and perhaps it is no accident that they hold on to their leaves longest in the dead of winter. Family trees are quite similar. When leaves go missing the tree is weakened and we all suffer from the loss.
Cheers,
Ian W. Brown
|