WILLIAM KEITH BROOKS.* 



ANCESTRY AND FAMILY. 



William Keith Brooks, Professor of Zoology in the Johns 

 Hopkins University, was born at Cleveland, Ohio, March 25, 

 1848, and died at his country home, "Brightside," near Balti- 

 more, November 12, 1908. 



Although Professor Brooks used to say jocosely that his 

 known line of descent was too short to be of much interest to 

 a student of phylogeny, it goes back, nevertheless, to some of 

 the earliest settlers of Massachusetts. On his father's side he 

 was descended from Thomas Brooks, who came from England 

 to Boston prior to 1634, and soon thereafter settled in Concord. 

 For five generations preceding the Revolution the Brooks 

 homestead was in • Concord. His great grandfather, Joshua 

 Brooks, served in the battle of Concord; his grandfather, 

 Joshua Brooks, was born in Lincoln, Massachusetts, in 1780, 

 whence he removed to Burlington, Vermont ; his father, Oliver 

 Allen Brooks, was born in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1814, and 

 moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1835, where he became one of 

 the early merchants of that city. 



Through his mother he was descended from John Kingsley, 

 who came from England to Dorchester, Massachusetts, about 

 1638. His maternal grandfather, the Rev. Phineas Kingsley, 

 was born in Rutland, Vermont, in 1788, and moved to Ohio in 

 1847; his mother, Ellenora Bradbury Kingsley, born June 30, 

 1 81 7, was married in 1840 to Oliver Allen Brooks, of Cleve- 

 land. The parents of Professor Brooks were second cousins, 



* In the preparation of this memoir the writer has had the invaluable, 

 assistance of Mr. Oliver K. Brooks and Prof. E. A. Andrews. The 

 former has supplied all information available concerning the ancestry 

 and early life of his brother, and he has. also furnished certain details 

 concerning his later life and personal traits. Professor Andrews has 

 assisted materially in the compilation of the bibliography, and a free use 

 has been made of his several articles on Professor Brooks. 



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