The debate continues over how William Mead and his family arrived in the New England colonies. To my knowledge, nobody has ever been able to trace the family farther than their arrival in Stamford, Conn., on Dec. 7, 1641, exactly 300 years before Pearl harbor.
Nineteenth century genealogists place his coming with that of a brother Gabriel, aboard the Elizabeth in 1635. But it cannot be proved he had a brother and neither Gabriel nor William is listed among 98 identified passengers on the ship.
There was a Gabriel or Goodman Mead, as he is sometimes know, and he married a woman who traveled on the Elizabeth with her family. They settled in Dorchester, Mass., and their descendants moved on to Vermont and New Hampshire.
But no William.
Until a traceable line can be found, I have removed the pre-1641 mention of William from my own records. I am searching passenger ship lists of the period to see if his name might pop up on some other ship. So far, I do not have anything positive to report.
I think many of us, myself included, simply accepted the early accounts of Gabriel and William, the town of Lydd in County Kent, as the pre-colonial home of the family. Now, others are beginning to look for a better explanation.
The problem is complicated by the lack of a name for William’s wife. Even the commemorative family monument in Cos Cob, CT, merely lists “William, Joseph, Mary, and John” – no Mrs. Mead. In tracing the family, we have gone with Martha Davis, Mary Barker, and Philippa Kilvey, as William’s wife. One tree even combined two of them as Mary Davis Barker, or was it Martha Barker Davis?
It’s an interesting problem to tackle and I’d like to challenge each reader to join me in trying to come up with a solution to the dilemma. If any of you have nay information that can cast a light on the family’s journey form whence they came to Stamford, I invite you to share it with our readers.
On the other hand, if William and Gabriel were brothers and if they did come from Lydd to Massachusetts on the Elizabeth, and if William did spend some time in Wethersfield before arriving in Stamford, let’s prove it.
It is pretty easy adding a name to today’s living generations, but it s far more exciting to find someone from the past whose name has been missing from the family tree all these years.
When James Hooker Langdon Mead died on Sept. 21, 1891, he had provided in his will to leave the sum of $20,000 to the City of Sheboygan, Wis., for a public library.He appointed his son-in-law, Frank Williams, and George C. Cole, as his successors.In a time less troubled by a need for speedy communications, Williams waited until Feb. 12, 1897, to write the official notification of the request to the City Council.It was not formally presented to Council until March 1.
This is the story of the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, Wis., and how James Mead’s $20,000 bequest, over the passage of time, came to grow.
James Mead was born in Montpelier, Vermont, on Dec. 6, 1831.Very likely, he is a descendant of the Massachusetts (Gabriel/Goodman) or Connecticut (John) lines of the family.
He came to Sheboygan in 1856 and with his father-in-law founded and obtained a charter for the German Bank (later 1st Wisconsin-Sheboygan and more recently Firstar).At the time of his death, he was president of the German Bank.
He also was president of the Crocker Chair Co., vice-president of the Brickner Woolen Mills of Sheboygan Falls, secretary of the Phoenix Chair Co., and a director of the Lake Shore Railway.
The Portrait and Biographical Record of Sheboygan wrote the Following about Mead:“He was a man who would take great risks in lending assistance, and was very lenient to debtors, but seldom lost thereby,” and “seeing the many temptations to which young men are exposed who seek entertainment on the streets, or worse still in the saloons, he left $10,000 to the Congregational Church and $20,000 to the City of Sheboygan to be used to provide places ‘for the amusement and literary culture of young men,’ in the case of the gift to the City, for a public library.”
Once it had instructions from Mead’s will, the City moved to build a library.First, it leased a two-story brick building for five year.The rent was $120 for the first year, $180 the second, $240 the third, $300 the fourth and $300 the fifth.
The Library Board appointed Katherine Buchanan, a local resident, to be the first librarian.The Council appropriated $1,416 for the operation of the library the first year and the sum of $1,474 was raised by a public fund drive to purchase books.
On Nov. 1, 1897, The Sheboygan Telegram ran the following news article:
The new public library was thrown open today and the issue of cards was begun.The dedication of the library was as devoid of ceremony as has been the routine of preparing for issuing books.So informal was it that few people knew that the issue of cards would begin today, so that up to 3 o’clock that number of applications was limited.
Although the last 500 volumes ordered have not arrived and will not be here until the latter part of next week, the library is opened under the most favorable circumstances.The books are carefully selected, representing the best in literature, and cover a wide range.
The library and reading room will be open from 2 till 9 p.m. daily and on Sunday the reading room will be open 2 till 6 p.m.
The first book taken was “Jack and Jill” by Louisa May Alcott, borrowed by the Rev. James Churm of the Methodist Episcopal Church.The Rev. John Sietsema of Hope Reformed Church was the first to apply for a library car, but he declined to borrow a book at the time.
However, as large numbers of children began using the library, there was less space available for young men.In 1904, it was determined a larger library was needed and a bequest was made of Andrew Carnegie for a gift of $25,000.The mayor of Sheboygan, a library enthusiast, wrote to Carnegie, citing the population as 23,000 mostly German, but some Hollanders and Scandinavians.The industries of the city are woodworking, chairs being the principal product.“Our working people are peaceful, provident, industrious, intelligent and generally own their homes ranging in value from $1,000 to $2,500.We have five modern ward schoolhouses and a fine large new high school building, all crowded to their utmost capacity.The municipality is heavily in debt and taxes are high.We have heard of your benefactions and feel encouraged to present our case to you.”Carnegie responded and later raised his contribution to $35,000.
But nothing had been done with the $20,000 Jim mead left in trust.By 1914, it had grown to $40,000.When his son-in-law died in 1935, there was a question of what should be done with it.By then, it was $100,000.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court declared it should be turned over to the City of Sheboygan for library purposes.By 1964, the library agreed that a new and expanded library building was needed.A bond issue, containing $2.3 million for the library, was approved.In 1974, Sheboygan opened its new 64,000 square foot public library.Before the opening, students carried 150,000 books from the old library to the new.
And in 1986, the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science selected mead Public Library as one of 50 outstanding libraries in the U.S.
Recently the library has become new once again at a cost of another $4.9 million raised equally through Sheboygan’s taxpayers and private benefactors through the Mead Public Library Foundation.
And it all came about as the result of a $20,000 donation from the will of James Hooker Langdon mead.
(E.R. Kunert, director of the mead Public Library from 1961 until his retirement in 1991, published an abridged edition of its history.)
Greenwich Historical Society Adds Many Mead Heirlooms
By Susan Richardson, Archivist at the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich
The Meads of Greenwich are a family whose history is closely bounded to the history of our town.Descended from John Mead, one of the 17th Century settlers of Horseneck, the family grew in numbers and influence for two centuries.By the 19th Century, Meads of one branch of the family or another owned most of the shorefront property in Greenwich from Byram to Riverside.
One of the wealthiest of the meads was Oliver mead of Field Point.A farmer born to Zophar and Huldah Mead in 1800, he died unmarried and childless in 1887.His young cousin, Oliver Deliverance Mead, son of Daniel S. Mead of Greenwich Ave., was his heir.After a 10-year case which challenged his right to inherit the estate absolutely, he became undisputed owner of the inheritance.Almost immediately he began to develop the farm property as prime residential sites.
He lived in the Zophar Mead farmhouse on Pear Lane until his death in 1939.A bank president, stalward member of the Second Congregational Church and real estate entrepreneur, he was often seen around town in his electric car, chauffeured by his daughter, Olive.
He and his wife, Cornelia, had three daughters.His youngest daughter, Lydia Smith Mead, married William J. Ferris and had a daughter, also named Lydia.With her death in 195, this branch of the mead family came to an end.
From the estate of Lydia Ferris Lester, the Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich has purchased a large collection of Meade family material, made possible by a generous donation from Claire and Hugh Vanderbilt.The collection includes family papers, documents, photographs, negatives, maps, plot plans, ephemera, memorabilia and textiles, dating from 1767 to 1995.
Among the notable documents are a 1783 deed signed by both John Lawrence, state treasurer of Connecticut, and Oliver Wolcott, signer of the Declaration of Independence, an 18th Century copy of the 1672 Greenwich List of property owners; and the contract for creating “a half-mile race trace at Greenwich: which became Field Point Circle.A rich collection of ephemera encompasses U.S. Lottery tickets dated Nov. 18, 1776, and The Book of the Educational Exhibit of Greenwich, Ct.” of 1912.
Hundreds of family photographs of the Mead family are complemented by views of their houses, farms and animals.Also included are views of Oliver D. Mead at an encampment of the State Militia in the 1870s and the attendees at the first town meeting in the new Town Hall on Greenwich Ave.The map collection details the development of Field Point Park and includes a copy of the Sanborn Atlas in 1912.
Items ranged from the practical to the elegant, a grain sack bearing the name Zophar Mead to the delicate lace and silk chiffon wedding dress and veil of Lydia Smith Mead in its original box from B. Altman of New York and Paris.
If you’re a member of the extended mead-e family in the United States, it may be quite easy to determine your American roots just by looking at the spelling of your name.The Mead line – no final ‘e’ – is English and probably comes from progenitors William and Goodman (Gabriel) Mead.They were among the earliest of the family to come to America, settling near Boston, Mass., and Stamford, CT, just 10 years or so after the Pilgrims.
William’s descendants spread out through Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and into the Midwest.The descendants of Goodman, who also went by the name of Gabriel, stayed closer to home but also settled in New Hampshire and Maine.
If you’re a Meade – notice the final ‘e’ – your heritage may be a bit more complicated.There are Meades in Philadelphia (Gen. George Gordon Meade of Civil War and Gettysburg fame) and Meades in Virginia (notably, the descendants of Col. Richard Kidder Meade, a member of George Washington’s staff during the Revolutionary War).There is even a William Meade, no relation to the Connecticut line, but a prominent bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia.
It has been recorded that both the Philadelphia Meades and the Virginia Meades originally emigrated from Ireland.They had spelled their name Meagh while living in County Kerry, Ireland, and came to the colonies nearly a hundred years after Goodman and the first William arrived.
As with most genealogical findings today, there are exceptions to just about all the rules.A third generation of William Mead’s son, Joseph, added a final ‘e’ to the surname.Then it was dropped for a generation and picked up again.All of his youngest son John’s offspring remained loyal to the spelling without a final ‘e.’
As a result, if you are a Mead, it is very likely your pedigree in America begins “William-John.”Right at the start, John and his wife, Hannah Potter, gave the Mead line a prodigious beginning by parenting 11 children – eight of them boys to carry on the family name.They were John II, Joseph, Ebenezer, Jonathan, David, Benjamin, Nathaniel and Samuel.The three girls were Hannah, Abigail and Mary.Their children and their children’s children led the family’s migration to Nine Partners in Dutchess County, NY; to Rutland, BT, and into western Pennsylvania where they founded the town of Meadville.
Joseph Mead’s descendants who began the use of the final ‘e’ in their name, moved to the Finger Lakes region of New York state and settled near Auburn.They were also the Meades who, in the mid-1800s went on to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
But ironically, in the cemetery just outside Auburn, the parents, Eliphalet Mead (1777-1846) and his wife, Susannah Olmstead, are buried side by side with their son, Harvey (1801-1843).Harvey, a fifth grandson of William, had adopted the final ‘e’ variation to his last name and it has been carried by his line t this day.
Timothy, the fourth son of Jonathan Mead, took his family from Connecticut to Nine Partners, so-called because there were nine families in number.One of his sons James then struck out for Vermont, settling near Rutland.They are said to have been the first white people in Vermont and a son, William, born Sept. 24, 1770, is believed to have been the first-born in the state.
After he grew up, William told a story of clinging to his mother’s back as they rode on horseback to safety during the Battle of Bennington.At the same time, she clutched a younger son to her bosom.William’s family moved from Vermont into Ohio, further spreading the migration across the United States.
David Mead was a grandson of Darius and had also lived in Nine Partners.He led the exploration of western Pennsylvania and was instrumental in the founding of Meadville.A book, “David Mead, Pennsylvania’s Last Frontiersman,” by Robert D. Ilisevich, is a biography of his agonizing and troubled life as he challenged the savage wilderness to establish a pioneer civilization.
Gen. George Gordon Meade remains one of the most heralded members of the family. He was the commander of the union forces in the historic Battle of Gettysburg, generally considered to be the turning point in the Civil War.His parents had come to America from Ireland and he was born in Cadiz, Spain, where his father was a U.S. naval agent.He had just taken command of the Union army when it was plunged into battle at Gettysburg.After three days of fierce fighting, the South was forced to retreat.Meade was severely criticized for not pursuing Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army.He defended his decision by citing the heavy losses his own forces had sustained in the bloody fighting.Meade retained his command until the end of the war, although Gen. Ulysses S. Grant became the titular head of the Union Army and eventually forced Lee’s surrender.
In Virginia, the history of the Meade family is just as colorful.Indian princess Pocahontas was related to he Virginia Meades through marriage, an interesting genealogical tie that bears reporting.
As near as can be established, however, there are no direct lines connecting the Virginia Meades with the Connecticut or Massachusetts Meads.To determine your family heritage, ask the simple question:“Did your ancestors originally come from Connecticut, Massachusetts, or Virginia?”
(Editor’s note:The following article is reprinted from the real estate section of the Greenwich, Conn., Advocate and tells the history of the 301 year-old home of Benjamin Mead, who built it in 1697.)
A part of the historical heritage of Greenwich, one of the oldest, continually occupied family homes in town, is for sale.Dating back more than three centuries, the landmark Benjamin Mead house on Orchard Street in Cos Cob is on the market for $510,000.“The Benjamin Mead house is one of three verified 17th century houses in Greenwich,” said Susan Richardson of The Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich.“The date we gave it is 1697.The other two are the Thomas Lyon house at the foot of Byram Hill, which was moved across the street and whose interior has little left that was original to the house, and Putnam Cottage.”
Putnam Cottage, once Israel Knapp’s tavern, on East Putnam Avenue is the headquarters of the Putnam Hill Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
John Mead, founder of the Mead family here, came to Greenwich in 1660, just 20 years after Greenwich was first settled.On October 26, 1660, “Richard Crabb sells all his lands and housing in Greenwich to John mead of Hempstead, Long Island,” said Elizabeth W. Clarke, editor of “Before and After 1775.”At one time, Mead was the largest landholder in town.
In 1664, Mead and six other landowners petitioned the General Assembly in Hartford to separate Greenwich from Stamford.Their request was granted the following year.Mead, together with 26 other proprietors, later purchased Horseneck Plantation from the Hiosekhasseky Indians, and in 1672, the size of each proprietor’s lot was determined by the amount of taxable property owned in town.
Horseneck, stretching from the Mianus River to the Byram River, was the second settlement in Greenwich, while the first was in what is now Old Greenwich.Married to Hannah Potter of Stamford, the meads had eight sons and three daughters.Benjamin, the sixth son, inherited 15 acres of his father’s property in Cos Cob in 1696.
In his will, John Mead described Benjamin’s inheritance as “five acres of Land at Stickling brock (Strickland Brook) as it is Lyd out of mee, and all my Lands & meadow Lying & being at that Place Commonly Cauled Coscob, as it is Layd out to mee & ten acres of upland above ye road aded now to ye five,” according to Martha Braun, writing in 1969, for The Link, a magazine formerly published by The Greenwich Junior Woman’s Club.
In 1607, Benjamin Mead built a home on his land, a two-room saltbox style, with a center chimney.A rear lean-to, including a kitchen ell (I’m not sure what that word is supposed to be—“well,” perhaps?), was added in 1732, according to an architectural field survey completed by the historical society.
Benjamin Mead was involved in more than one building project in Greenwich.In 1706, Meade, John Renals Jr. (now spelled Reynols) and Caleb, Knapp were appointed to oversee the work on the town’s second meetinghouse at Horseneck, according to Debra Wing Ray and Gloria P. Stewart, authors of “Loyal to the Land,” the history of the Reynolds family in Greenwich.
In 1746, Benjamin sold the house to his third son, Obadiah, for 200 pounds, New York money, and the Mead family continued to occupy the house for almost 200 years.Some features of the house are original, but the early acreage has dwindled to 14,300 square feet, according to the listing agent, Isabell S. Cox of Old Greenwich, whose agency bearsher family name.In the entry of the house, the floor is composed of original planking found in the attic, according to Braun.There is a large fireplace with a beehive oven in the kitchen/dining room area, and the stairs to the second floor are described as “pulpit stairs,” narrow and straight up.
A “summer beam” that crosses the ceiling in what is now the great room appears to be at least 16 inches in width and still bears ancient adze marks.The rough-hewn stone hearth and fireplace now hold a Franklin stove.Much of the fireplace has been reworked, but above an original mantle beam the stonework looks original, according to Nils Kerschus, a professional architectural historian and historical society consultant.
There is also a living room, whose fireplace has been blocked off, and a master bedroom and bath on the floor.What was once the borning room is now a separate laundry, and steps carved from stone ledge lead down to the basement, Cox said.Upstairs are two bedrooms and a powder room.
Plaqued by the historical society, the house is also noted for its massive supporting posts, early windows and evidence of a trap door in the great room ceiling that once led to the original attic.The streetside exterior façade appears to be largely unmodified, according to the historical society.
As late as 1949, a 20-pound Revolutionary War cannonball was unearthed in the yard of the house, according to Clark.The present owner, Robert B. Rogers III, restored much of the house, including uncovering the great room fireplace that had been walled-up for years.
Meads have lived in Greenwich for more than three centuries.The earliest recorded marriage in Greenwich was that of another of John Mead’s sons, John Jr., who married Ruth Hardey in 16812, and the arrival of John, the couple’s son the following year, was the town’s first recorded birth.Widow Hannah Mead was “chosen to keep a house for entertainment of strangers and to sell strong drinks,” in 1714, Clarke wrote.
Transcriber’s Note:I am typing from Mr. Lee Meade’s typing, not from an original document, so what you see is what I saw from the Mead-e Family Tree Newsletter.
I Gabrell Mead, of Dorchester, being aged & infirme in body, yet of perfect remembrance, doe make this my last will & testament.My will is that Joanna my wife be my sole executor & have y’ full dispose of all my estate for her own comfort & helping to bring up my children while shee lives, & after her desease my will is y’ my sonne, Israell, shall have y’ house I now dwell in, with y’ orchard & apurtenance thereunto belonging.I give unto my sonne, David, my old house and that orchard or garden thereunto adjoyning, & also my plot of land being in ye field neer the burial place.I give unto my dau. Lydia, 30 pounds, to be paid as my wife shal be able, within two yeres after my desease. I give unto my daus. Experience, Sarah and Patience, 30 pounds apiece, to be paid them within one year after they shall be married, if they live soe to bee; and it is my mind that if either of my sonns dye before they come to enjoy that before given them, or either of them, that then y’ same to bee equally divided after my wifes desease to y’ rest of my children; also it is my mind & will, that if my wife shall by nessesity be forced to sell either part of y’ whole for maintenants of her selfe or children, while shee is a widow, y’ she shall power soe to doe with y’ advise off my friends after named; and In case shee should marry, then my mind is, that my sonns shall enjoy y’ former gifts when they shall attaine the age of one & twenye years.I intreat my loving Freinds, Deacon Clap & ensigne Foster, to be overseers and to assist and advise my wife & children as need may require.January 15, 1654.
/s/ Gabrell Meade
Boston 17th of July 1667, Capt. Hopestill Foster deposed.
There are many unanswered questions regarding the family relationship of Goodman (Gabriel) and William Mead.Were they brothers?Or cousins?Did they only share a common surname?Or is the correct answer, “None of the above.”
It has been generally accepted by genealogists since the turn of the 20th century that both men came to the colonies from England and were brothers.Most place their arrival between 1635 and 1640 at Boston.Some claim they were passengers aboard the British ship, Elizabeth, captained by William Stagg.There was, in fact, a Capt. Stagg; and a ship named Elizabeth did sail from England to New England in April 1635.However, there is no reference to either Goodman or William mead on the available list of passengers.
All that has been conclusively proven is that Goodman, more commonly known as Gabriel, and William both suddenly appeared on the American horizon about that time.
Goodman and his wife settled in Dorchester, where he became the keeper of the town’s meeting house and the “ringer of the bell.”His name appeared on many official documents of the day, giving rise to a mistaken belief he was a barrister or court official.More correctly, because he was always present in the meeting house, he was easily available to be witness for those who needed such service.
He has become known as the progenitor of the Massachusetts branch of the Mead family line.
On the other hand, William was first heard from on Dec. 7, 1641, when he was among a group of 10 m en from Wethersfield to be granted a “homelot” of five acres in Stamford, CT.but neither William nor any of his family are mentioned in Wethersfield records of the day.
From those points in time forward, the proliferation of the Meads and Meades across the U>s. has been documented quite well.All of us are living proof the two men were the original heads of their family and the earliest to come to the colonies.Tracing their history backwards to England has been a much more difficult assignment.
On theory, unproven, is that Goodman and William were brothers, born about 1589 in London or near the small town of Lydd in County Kent on the southeast coast of the English Channel.
Goodman is believed to have married Joanne Bates, the daughter of James Bates, in Lydd in 1633.The birth of their first child, Israel, is placed at Dorchester, Mass., about 1637.However, there is no supporting evidence for their passage on the Elizabeth.
There was a James Bates, 53, and Alice Bates, 52, with four children listed as passengers on the ship.The children are Lyddia, 20; Maria 17; Margaret 12, and James Jr., 9.James Sr. appears to be Joanna’s father.
It seems more likely Goodman and Joanna, who were married several years before the Elizabeth sailed, remained in England and joined Joanna’s parents in the colonies a short time later.Since Israel was born in 1647, their coming to the colonies would have been between 1635 and 1637.
The issue becomes clouded by the fact that there were two families of Bates on the Elizabeth.There was a second Bates family on the ship.Clement Bates, 40, a tailor, apparently is the brother of James Bates.He and his wife, Ann, 40, came with their children – James, 14; Clement, 12; Joseph, 5, and Benjamin 2.
“The History of Dorchester” recognizes Gabriel “was possibly in Dorchester as early as 1636.”It goes on to say he became a “freeman” on May 2, 1638, but lists his wife’s name as Susannah.It may simply have been an error of recording.The document does list the names of his children correctly and makes reference to his will.The will (see British Genealogy I) was signed “Gabrell” and witness on Jan. 17, 1654, by Hopestill Foster, who ironically was a passenger on the Elizabeth.Gabriel refers to his wife as Joanna in the will.He died on March 12, 1666 at the age of “about 79.”
In addition to Israel, the other children of Gabriel and Joanna were David, Lydia, Experience, Sarah and Patience.All were included as beneficiaries in his will and there are records of their lives in Massachusetts.
The second son, David, married a Hannah Warren.She may have been related to Richard Warren, who was on the Mayflower when it made its historic trip to Plymouth in 1620.Warren also made the trip to the colonies without his family, quite a common practice.He sent for them after surviving the first torturous winter and they joined him the following year.
In the History of Dorchester, records show Goodman “had charge of the meeting house.”One entry states “there not being sufficient cash in the treasury to pay him the three pounds due for that service the present year, Mr. Patten agreed to pay him twenty-six shillings and eight pence, and Ens. Foster the rest – both to be allowed the same out of the next town rate.”
Further evidence indicated Joanna Mead was to be paid money owed her husband at his death for service to the town and provided that she should carry on his work “as bell ringer.”In 1667, Dorchester approved the payment “to widow Mead for wringing the bell, 3 pounds.”
William Mead is mentioned as having landed at Dorchester, relocating in Wethersfield, Conn., and moving on to Stamford.However, despite the likelihood, no trace of him has been founding either Dorchester or Wethersfield.However, when a group of men believed to have come from Wethersfield arrived in Stamford in the fall of 1641, William was among them.Stamford town records show that on Dec. 7l, 1641, William Mayd (Mead) received form the Town of Stamford, a homelot and five acres of land.
His wife’s name also remains unknown (although three possibilities, either Philippa Kilvey, Martha Davis or Mary Barker, exists.).His three children – Joseph, Martha and John – are well documented.
The descendants of Goodman Mead lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, while William’s offspring developed a more migratory pattern, moving to New York, Pennsylvania and into the Midwest.
There is no indication the Meades of Virginia or Pennsylvania were related to Goodman or William in any way, although some of their children found their way to both states in the early 1700s.
But other the years, of whence Goodman and William came to the colonies, how they got here and where they came from has remained conjecture.As we head into the Third Millennium, 380 years after the maiden voyage of the Pilgrims, it is still one of the family’s greatest unanswered questions.