18th Century Leveretts

on kindle, $4.99
Paperback $8.40 + shipping, Amazon

Anyone who found their name in this blog, for example in the Otis' genealogy, might be interested in this book. The central dilemma of those who descend from James Walker, or from Joseph before him, or either of the two Williams before that, is that it stops at that second William, and he's in the heart of the 18th century. Records were scarce, especially for people who were impressed from Boston Harbor, or who just appeared from England at what in Boston is known as "the times of hardship." Such was the life of our ancestors. There are two gaps in the ancestry - one assuming that that second William came from a third (it was popular to assume that for quite a while, and it's plausible). In that case, William (~1692) may have been a child of Hudson's before Hudson died. The second theory is that somehow the Leverett men (Joseph and Washington) were right in the lists they made, though they couldn't have been absolutely right. To be brief, their lists, identical, had two Williams descending through two Johns, and before that Knight and Thomas the barber. Though the youngest of the Johns, John Esq. (1758) could not have fathered the oldest of the Williams (~1727), there are ways to envision the descent so that it would be possible for Thomas the barber and Knight to be part of the picture.

This second theory is supported by their own lists of their ancestors, which included two Johns and two Williams.

This book covers everyone: the Johns, the Williams, Knight and Thomas, Hudson, Joseph and Washington - it lays out the problem. I, the author, see myself more as presenting the issue than making up my mind about the solution. I'm leaning toward the second one, though. Their own written lists cannot possibly be right, but they give a window into what they thought was true, and basically I would, and did, start from there.

The book is not entirely genealogy. Boston was an interesting place. The Leveretts were well known. The place was hopping. Enough said.