John Benson was born about 1608 in England. He married Mary Williams, daughter of Robert Williams and Agnes Atkins, 14 October 1633 in Caversham, Oxfordshire. The couple emigrated in 1638, settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, and had five children. Descendants lived mainly in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and South Carolina.

As the eldest grandchild on both sides, Albert J. Zdenek, Jr. has always been the collector of his family’s stories and memorabilia. This thoroughly researched, beautifully designed and illustrated book explores how the branches of his family left Germany, Ireland, and Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic) to settle in America’s Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Pennsylvania was the hub most of these families passed through before 1950, when Albert James Zdenek, Sr.

John Thorndike was born in England about 1605. His parents were Francis Thorndike and Alice Coleman. John was one of the first settlers of Agawam, Massachusetts, in 1633. He married Elizabeth Stratton in 1637 and they had five daughters and one son. Their son, Paul (1643-1698), married Mary Patch in 1668 in Beverly, Massachusetts, and the couple had seven children. Descendants lived mainly in Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Illinois.