A man called Sampson

The Native Americans of New England have received scant genealogical attention despite 350 years of documented history. This ground-breaking book is an excellent study of one branch of a Connecticut tribe who migrated to Brothertown, New York, in the late 1700's. The first fifty pages review the long and troubled history of the Pequots and the mass migration of many Pequots, Mohegans, and others to the Brothertown community, led by minister Samson Occum. The genealogical section, arranged in Register format, begins with a sachem called Nimrod, born about 1580, and details the lives and times of five generations down to one Sampson of Mashantucket, born about 1730. The authors have attempted, with admirable success, to trace all the descendants of his son James Sampson, the Brothertown settler, down to the 1980's. Each chapter is well footnoted. The first printing of the book was supplemented by The Sampson Photo Album, a separate 177-page volume of 1,500 to 2,000 faces photocopied from photographs. It is not available with the second printing. R. Andrew Pierce, in reviewing this book for The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume CXLVIII, July 1994, said: "A Man Called Sampson is as much an historical document as a genealogical register; in a loving tribute to their own family history, the Otterys bring Native Americans out of a fabled and romanticized past to be seen as individuals with a strong sense of identity, family and community, and as tenacious survivors sharing in the American pioneer experience. This book should be read by all serious American Indian scholars, as well as genealogy buffs; no longer is New England family history the preserve of Pilgrims and Puritans."