Francis DEXTER

                       PC:  Mary MELLENS (4m):  "of Charlestown, Malden, Weymouth, and Boston,
    Massachusetts."
    FGR:  Richard DEXTER abt 1598:  "Most of our New England ancestors came
    to Massachusetts between 1630 and 1640.  King James first passed a
    law that no one could emigrate to America without a certificate from
    the minister of the Church of England in the parish where he lived; a
    careful record of these certificates must be kept, and sworn by the ship
    captain.

    These records have been printed and are easy to find.  Now since Francis
    Dexter, father of our Richard has been identified in England, I wonder if
    it would be very difficult to find more of our Dexter genealogy before
    1630?  And since Richard moved around so much, I wonder if he had other
    children.  And since his first child of record was born about 1633 when
    he was about 35, I wonder if he followed the common custom and left
    earlier little ones with relatives in England?  The journey across the
    Atlantic was so dangerous so many died; and so many more died from
    hardships in the New World.  We should appreciate these ancestors of
    ours.  (O.C. Day)

SOURCES:
    1. IGI
    2. Ancestral file
    3. Main Ar