Where have I been? Catching up on my research. It’s amazing how much more you can learn when you think you’ve already got a subject covered.

I’ve got lots of good stuff in the pipeline, but some polishing is still needed. In the meantime, I want to acknowledge some help I got from Mary Jackes, who sent me part of a book written by Watson Kirkconnell called “Climbing the Green Tree and some other Branches,” a regrettable title.

Mary sent me this material because of Mr. Kirkconnell’s assumption that Samuel Green was connected with the Rhode Island Greens, something I alluded to in my previous post. There is, in fact, as Mary pointed out, no connection at all, and I want to make sure my readers are aware of that.

Kirkconnell is one of those who gives Samuel Green a birthdate of 1671. I have not yet found an actual record to confirm that birthdate, and am uncomfortable with it. There is nothing to show that Samuel Green was an adult in West New Jersey by 1691. At least so far. In fact, as Mary Jackes wrote me, that birthdate seems to belong to a Samuel Green of Rhode Island who was born 30 Jan 1670/71 and died of smallpox on 18 Sep 1720.

I should also mention that William Green of Trenton Twp. who died in 1722 was also not related to the Rhode Island Greens, despite the claims of Mr. Kirkconnell. He too has an unknown pedigree, as does George Green and Richard Green, both of New Jersey.

On the subject of Samuel Green’s brothers, if they were William Green and George Green (and we have no proof of that other than proximity), they were certainly older than Samuel. William Green of Trenton is given a birth date of 1671, so he was 51 when he died in 1722. George Green was present in Gloucester County sometime after 1686 when the county court ordered that earmarks be registered.

Green’s name appears on a list kept by the county clerk, John Reading. But Reading had left Gloucester by 1709 or earlier. So that is the time frame we have, 1686-1709. There are no dates attached to the list of names published in Frank H. Stewart’s “Gloucester County Under the Proprietors” (pg 13). I am carefully perusing this unindexed book, which I just acquired, because John Reading and the Bull family were residents there, and Samuel Green had close connections with these people. Finding George Green’s earmarks listed (but not Samuel or Richard’s) is intriguing, especially because George Green also shows up as an early resident of Burlington County. (Thankfully, the Burlington County Court Book does have an index.) So much to do.

I hope the next post will be coming soon.