Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This celebrated volume is a thorough examination of some 5,000 descendants of John Goode, son of Richard Goode of Cornwall, who emigrated first to Barbados and ultimately settled at Whitby, about four miles from Richmond, Virginia, at some point before 1661. Commencing with a chapter on the English origins of the Goodes from 1148, the author, G. Brown Goode, meticulously lays out the story of the Virginia Goodes and their allied families for eight generations in America to 1887. In the process, we see the dispersion of this family from the Richmond environs to Lunenberg, Chesterfield, Prince Edward, and still other counties in Virginia, through much of the ante-bellum South, and ultimately to places to the north and much further west. It is the enormous scale and detail of the family history itself, however, that impresses the researcher most and has caused the work to remain in continued use to this day.
Synopsis
Salem, Massachusetts, famous for its witchcraft trials of the late 17th century, is situated about 30 miles northeast of Boston. The work at hand, compiled by William Bentley, is a transcription of the death entries found in the parish records of the East Church of Salem, of which Mr. Bentley was the pastor. The book was edited for publication by Ira J. Patch and was originally published in 1882 as part of the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute. The abstracts themselves, over 1,200 in all, are arranged in chronological order, and they are among the most complete death notices we have seen. Typically, the notice's include the decedent's name and his/her age and the cause of death; his/her place of birth; the names of parents and/or surviving family members; and something about the decedent's life or character. In all, these handy notices refer to nearly 2,500 early inhabitants of Salem, each of whom may be found in the complete name index at the back of the volume.