so i didn't want to get into the vermont leveretts; there were quite a few of them, but it was pretty clear they aren't ours, or at least i thought so, and, there was a guy who married his own cousin. so i pretty much ignored any leverett who was from vermont, even though they shared a lot of names: thomas, john, william, that kind. the kind i'm all over.

but then i find this piece of paper, with beautiful handwriting, and it appears to be written by joseph. now joseph was the pioneer; walked to his aunt's place in maine, at the age of seven, from the highway where he'd gotten a ride up from brookline; grew up to sturdy manhood cutting timbers and figuring out how to get them 80 miles down to portland without breaking them. moved to illinois in 1834. but, he was quiet. his son did all the writing, and most of what we know is from his son.

but this envelope seems to claim that his grandfather is not a william, as we'd suspected, but a john, and not only a john, but one who went to harvard and graduated in 1776.

now his father william was born in 1773 and died of delirium tremens at the age of 33 or something, so lots of information is lost there. and the son was sent to maine at the age of seven, so whatever was known when he was sent, probably didn't get written down. but the piece of paper i saw was clear and in beautiful handwriting. it said that his grandfather was john, not william. two johns, and, before that, up through knight leverett the metallurgist, and thomas the barber. sure enough, related to john the governor, but not john the president of harvard.

so i'm off to find these two johns, and see if maybe we got on the wrong track somewhere. it was a william, who came out of nowhere, who got rachel watts, daughter of the deacon, pregnant in chelsea and took her off to needham to raise children. and he joined up in henry jackson's regiment in the revolution. there was a william leverett out there in 1776.

but meanwhile, at harvard, is this john guy, who supposedly is our ancestor. he went on to yale, according to the records, so he was quite educated. seems to me a guy like that is more likely to run into the deacon's daughter.

but william met the deacon's daughter back in 1759, and they had the first of their children then. there's a time gap. although william the father of our joseph was born in 1773, right up against the revolution, and in needham to boot, where he could meet lydia, well, i don't see how this john guy could fit in there. unless there were two william (1773) dudes. and they would both pretty much have to be in needham, or near enough to it.

not sure where to go from here. interesting times!