Forebears and Bears

According to Yarmouth Death Records, Nancy Brooks, widow of John Brooks, died 7 December 1880 at Yarmouth.  Her death is notable in it's cause which was from "taking rat poison."  Her age was 68 years, 11 months, and eight days; she was the only individual on this record page to have race identified which was "A & I," or African and Indian.  The record provides that she was born at Nantucket to Stephen and Sally Pompey (Mashpee records identify her parents as John and Sarah Pomp[a]y; her mother's birth place is noted as Mashpee and her father's birthplace is not identified).  Nancy's husband, John Brooks, is brother to my ancestor Thomas Greenough Brooks of Yarmouth, both being sons of William and Susannah (Greenough) Brook. Susannah Greenough was of indigenous ancestry, and William Brooks, although identified across records with differing origins, most probably came from the Phillipines.  According to a Yarmouth Death Register John Brooks, was l...

I received wonderful mail from a cousin sometime past that enclosed photos and momentos in his possession which had belonged to our grandmother.  All great items I am thankful to have.  One of the items was an envelope on which was written: "Do Not Throw Away, Some of my ancestors as told to me by my mother."  Wow.  In the absence of a family bible, this is worth gold.  The notes, some handwritten and some typed, confirmed much of my research and I was glad to know I was headed in the right direction.  I only wish her information had extended even further back in the ancestral tree as these notes ended where my own research had ended - with Sophia King my great great great great grandmother.  This Midwest branch of the family tree looks like this: My grandmother's notes offered this (I can only surmise that these notes were left by my grandmother Wilma to probably one of her sons given the relationships described by the writer, i.e., "my great grandmot...