ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER YET AGAIN.

The other night I was going through more of my Ellingwood related ancestors, seeing if I could fill
in some blanks, when I came to my 8x great grandparents Thomas West and Elizabeth Jackson of
17th century Beverly, Ma. (They are no relation to my Plymouth County Wests.)  I'd previously
found the record of their marriage in Ancestry.com's Massachusetts Marriages, 1633-1850 file
and their death records but hadn't found out any more about them or their parents.. So I Googled them as "Thomas West"+"Elizabeth Jackson". Then, I added the words "Essex County court files."

-That led me to a June 1661 court case involving a John West, and among the witnesses were his son Thomas West and his  maid servant Elizabeth Jackson. John's wifes is only referred to as "Goody
West" . But at least I had learned that Thomas West was the son of John West.     

-I found a probate file for a John West at Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881 on
AmericanAncestors.org but all it contained was a slip of paper with "No Papers Found" written
on it. ((I HATE THAT!!!))

-I decided to see what I could find out about Elizabeth Jackson. On the Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850 website I found this in the Beverly, Ma.death records for the
West surname:

Elizebeth, w. Capt. Thomas, d. John and Kathrin Jackson, Oct. 12, 1708, a. 66 y. 9 m. 

- I went back to AmericanAncestors.org and found John Jackson in Essex County, MA: Early Probate Records, 1635-1681. There was no will but his widow Katherine filed the estate inventory at the Essex Quarterly Court session held at Ipswich, Ma., on 27Sep 1648.


I'm hoping to find out more about the wives of John West and John Jackson. But I know more now
about these ancestors than I did before.

Another case of "one thing leads to another."