William Lewis, b. about 1620, was the only son of his parents, William Lewis and Felix Collins of Cardiff, Wales. He came with his father to America about the year 1632, when he can be found with his father in Hartford and Farmington, Connecticut. While his parents removed thence to Hadley Massachusetts, it does not appear that he followed but instead stayed at Farmington where he taught school and his two marriages occurred. He first married Mary Hopkins, on 6 May 1645, daughter of William Hopkins, and widow to Richard Whitehead of Windsor, Connecticut. Ten children would be born to this union. The second marriage was to Mary Cheever, on 22 Nov 1671, daughter of Ezekiel Cheever of New Haven, Connecticut. He would have an additional 6 children through this marriage. William purchased “black land” in Hawinton, Connecticut from the Indians about 1637. He died about 1707.
From this William Lewis, Professor K. O. Thompson, author of the Lewis Family Genealogy descended the family tree through the line of Nathaniel Lewis, son of William Lewis and Mary Cheevers, for nine total generations. If you descend from Nathaniel Lewis or William Lewis then this rare manuscript could be quite valuable to you.
In terms of reliability of the information found within, I cannot advise, except to point out the obvious, and that is no sourcing was done by the author. As such, you should use this manuscript as a guide to further proofing your family tree by using other direct sources.
This manuscript, because of it’s publication date, requires you to “check out” like you would in a library. Once checked out, you can view the manuscript. But just like a library, please make sure you return the book when you’re through viewing it, so that others may also view it. There’s nothing worse then somebody holding onto a library book so that others cannot enjoy it as well. The “return” function is found when reading the manuscript in the upper left hand corner of the webpage.
[box]Source: Thompson, K. O. Lewis Family Genealogy. Privately published, abt. 1955. [/box]