Up a Tree

Once again, I have searched a branch of the family back as far as it goes on Family Search, but this search led to more of the sort of deeper dive into history that I hope to base these musings on.  Family Search allows me to find documents associated with a particular family member, which makes my research easier. Searching for many names that have no associated documentation usually winds up resulting in a list of genealogy sites that all contain the same basic information. But generally I will find something in documents provided that can send me into the course of history. Thomas Parker, a great-great-to-the-x grandfather, came to America in 1635 as part of what is known as "The Great Migration," an influx of Puritan settlers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s and 40s. You may remember that the Puritans arrived a couple of decades earlier, mostly fleeing religious persecution. The Puritans were "non-conformists," just one sect of Christianity that had