A FAMILY STUDY Descendants and David and Ann (Clark) Brooks with Connected Families by Lee and Mae Corless V 0146330 V DATE MICROFILMED ITEM ^^ PROJECT and G. S. ROLL # CALL # -j-ioa- laaiiio ^m^ 'ao'^M CORLESS BROOKS and RELATED FAMILIES /5 >/f^ The Genealogical Society of Utah would like permission to preserve your publication on microfilm and make it available to our branch libraries. If you agree, please complete this card and return it to us. I authorize the Genealogical Society of Utah to microfilm my publication and to use the film in its library system. Title of publication y.^s^ e. Signature, Date i^ :y-^ » d^ />d^^^,^ /^rm9Mr-r7^«fe^ 141 d Printed in USA /X. Ay^ r4 2 K Lee M. Corless A FAMILY STUDY Descendants of Jesse and Polly (Chase) Corless and David and Ann (Clark) Brooks with Connected Families Bailey Harris Shain Charlton Hildreth Welch Chase Luethe Whaley Dexter Newell Woolley by 6\i'>i 0^ Lee and Mae Corless Published by the Authors/ 1980 GENEALOGICAL DEPARTMENT CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS Copyright © 1980 by Lee M. Corless and Mae E. Corless All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 79-90219 Printed by Harlo Press, 50 Victor, Detroit, Michigan 48203 All y9 Dedicated to THE DESCENDANTS of the FAMILIES recorded here-in "To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root." —Old Chinese Proverb "Even the palest ink is more reliable than the most retentive memory." —Old Chinese Proverb "He that publishes a book runs a very great hazard, since nothing can be more impossible than to compose one that may secure the approbation of every reader." —Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are indebted to many people for their contributions to this work, far too many to single out; we would be remiss, however, in not mentioning the following: Alta (Corless) Stroh (born in 1858) who gave us our first bit of information about Jesse and Polly Corless and thereby arousing our interest. Helene (Brooks) Green for inspiration, guidance and much data. She well remembers discussions with "Uncle Nate" Brooks (born in 1839) who enjoyed reminiscing about the family in the days of his youth in Elgin County, Ontario. Deana (Corless) King who was of invaluable assistance with the Corlesses of Branch County, Michigan. Wilma Jeffries for her material on the early Brooks and those who crossed the Mississippi, including their descendants. Ken and Laura Fitzpatrick who supplied information and were our hosts and guides for numerous Elgin Coun- ty, Ontario excursions. Fred Lindsay for his vast knowledge of the pioneer families of Elgin County. Daniel and Edna Welch for their knowledge and guidance in the "Thumb Area" of Michigan. Amie (Campbell) Woolley for Campbell and Woolley information. Howard Woolley for extensive Woolley research. Earl and Verna Smyth for Jesse Corless, Jr. informa- tion. James Lancaster for Bailey information. 11 Mary (Dexter) Cooper for Dexter and Whaley data. E. Loraine (Stanton) Sales for Brooks family data, and for many days spent in final typing and in proof reading; her unlimited patience during weeks of work, can only be appreciated by those experienced in such activity. In addition our thanks to scores of people who gave hours of time in discussion, search and the writing of hun- dreds of letters to us. 12 INTRODUCTION We consider this Boole to be our personal report to our family, relatives and descendants, of our extensive study of the family history. The project has been much greater than anticipated, but worth all the effort, for our gains in terms of family knowledge, friends acquired, history learned and overall broadening of experience and view- point, have been most gratifying. We started to write about the Corless family but after finding seven Brooks-Corless marriages it was obviously desirable to include the Brooks. As the work progressed we found twelve families who were related by two or more marriages and we felt that they should be included to help round out the picture and because of the strong interest evidenced by them, David Brooks was born circa 1750, and Jesse Corless was born circa 1778. The generations recorded here-in span the growth of Canada and the United States from Nova Scotia and New England to the Pacific Coast. Our forebears were part of those courageous and hardy souls who made that expan- sion possible; they were solid contributing citizens; we are proud of them, and how proud they would be if they could be aware of the many fields of activity in which today's descendants are involved. Numerous items presented here-in came verbally from persons who passed on many years ago. Without this work such information would be lost. For example a woman that we had just met gave us a clue which resulted in our finding the death date and burial information for one of 13 David Brooks grandaughters and the name, birthdate and marriage of another grandaughter whose existence had hither-to been unknown. The woman who provided the clue died quite unexpectedly just three weeks later. We have tried to make this interesting in addition to being statistical, keeping in mind that our descendants of two hundred years in the future will be as interested in our lives, as we are in the lives of our predecessors who we wish had bequeathed to us more records of their time. We regret that time (and circumstances) have not per- mitted further study in numerous areas. The failure of too many persons to answer a letter of inquiry is regrettable. At any rate we have obtained and recorded enough material to be interesting and valuable, and hope that it will encourage younger persons to carry on the work. Our material sources include hundreds of interviews in person and via telephone, correspondence with hun- dreds of people, untold days spent in the careful perusal of many records including Church, Census, birth, mar- riage, death, land, wills, old newspapers, maps, genea- logical books, Genealogical Society reports and complete searches of cemeteries. The letters written, miles traveled and days required to locate and study these sources was something else. We believe that every child is entitled to know about his antecendents, and that it is the responsibility of his parents to take necessary steps to ensure that such knowledge is passed on. Truth is stranger than fiction and a thousand fold more difficult to find. We have double and triple checked information when ever possible, and have done our best to transfer all in- formation obtained by ourselves and supplied by others, into this Book correctly. As we are all only human, it is possible that errors may be found; if so we beg your in- dulgence. 14 GUIDE FOR USING THIS BOOK The material has been divided into three parts as in- dicated on the Contents Page. The first Chapter in Parts I and II, is devoted to the origin of the name, it's introduc- tion to this Continent and the first family on which we have information. Each of their children, in turn, is the subject of a Chapter which includes the child and descen- dants; information is presented in the eldest child se- quence; it follows then that the youngest child and descen- dants, appear in the latter portion of the Chapter. Each principal name, in the paragraph devoted to it, is usually followed by the name of the Corless or Brooks parent and pertinent preceding lineage. In Part III a Chapter is devoted to each of the more closely connected families, and the material is presented in much the same manner as indicated above. Quotation marks about a name indicate the name by which a person was best known. The Index includes all names in the Book, and for the Corless and Brooks lines the year of birth is given for con- venience in locating the individual. In Part III the year of birth is given for frequently used given names. Given names are frequently a problem because the records are normally indexed by the first name while many persons are known by their middle name, or a nickname which is some times not indicative. If difficulty is ex- perienced in finding a name try different spellings, observe middle names or initials, and lastly if the name of a parent or child is known, look for that person. 15 ABBREVIATIONS b. - born . PART I 17 CHAPTER I CORLESS The origin of the surname Corless is shrouded in history like so many others. A Reginald de Corlies was active at the Siege of Jerusalem during the Second Crusade which occurred during the period 1147 - 1188 A.D. Some of the Corlies family emigrated from Belgium to England in the 17th Century because of severe religious persecution which took place over an ex- tended period of time. One of the more widely known events was the Massacre of Bartholomew which started in Paris on August 24,15 72; an estimated 3000 Huguenots were slaughtered that night and over 25,000 within the week in France. The Edict of Nantes in 159 8, finally granted religious freedom for most of the Huguenots; but was revoked in 1685. The name in England has been variously spelled Corlies, Corlass, Corliss and Corless. An Irish author, Edward MacLysaght, has been reported as saying that the surname Corless is an Anglicization of an Irish Gaelic name; it comes from MacCathail, meaning son of Cathail (Mighty in Battle) , and in modem times it also has been derived from MacCaluis - son of Carluis (Charles) A Book on the Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolution, states that the name Corless appears under the form of Corliss, Calles, Caulest, Cauliss, Coless, Colis, Curlis and Kellis; obviously these variations resulted prim- arily from the fact that many of the soldiers did not know how to read and write, and company clerks wrote the name the way it sounded to them.