Hi Kathleen, I'm Don, one of four sons of William Eagles Douglas and Claire Putnam Douglas, first cousin of Doug Hockett. I do have a fair amount of information on the family, going back to 1660. I did the research a few years back, so will have to dig some of it up again.
As to what's written here, my maternal grandfather, George Blalock Putnam was the son of George Abram (not Albert or Agustus) Putnam. He was the great-grandson of William Hook,  who settled in Contra Costa County in 1853 and was quite an interesting character, as you can read here if interested.
Helen Singler, my grandmother, was the second wife of Frank Johnson Douglas, who was a widower when they married. His first, Alice Gilmore, was the mother of Miriam (Douglas) Hockett and her older sister, Francebeth Douglas.

I have a couple of theories as to how our immigrant ancestor, Robert Daglesh or Douglas arrived in America. DNA tests have confirmed to me that Douglas is the correct name, by the way. Anyway, one theory is that he was a captive at the Battle of Dunbar, one of those who was force-marched to Newcastle, imprisoned there, and finally shipped off to America as an indentured servant. At about the time that the 7-year period of servitude would have ended, a group of Puritan pilgrims passed through the area of Massachusetts where the Scots had been sent. I don't know for sure that this is how it happened, but do know that in 1660 Robert Douglas had joined that group and married one of their daughters. Some of the pilgrims from this (Wethersfield) colony joined with some from the New Haven colony and together they went to found the New Ark colony, AKA Newark.

More later. I keep in touch with Steve if you want to contact me directly.

Hi again, Kathleen :)

One of the things I found from studying genealogy it that it piqued my interest in the historical context generally. While I get my notes together on family history, you might do some googling of the Puritan group led by Rev. Abraham Pierson and, to a lesser extent that I'm not completely clear about, Henry Whitfield.

In addition to the historical record, given names give clues. William B. Douglass's father, Harvey Douglas, married Phebe Pierson Wade, and his younger brother was Harvey Whitfield Douglass. Harvey died not long after the younger Harvey's birth and Phebe apparently then married a man named Vreeland.

There was a naming tradition for some generations of using the maiden name of a female ancestor as a middle name. William B. Douglass's son Horace married Mary Elizabeth Eagles, which is how my father got his middle name. Both William and Horace had the middle name Bedford (which some records erroneously show as Bradford) and that derived from Patience Bedford. I think our (great-)grandfather Frank's middle name came from Thankful Johnson, but am not certain.

Cheers from Germany,
Don

Hi again, Kathleen,

This is an interesting account of the founding of Newark which includes reference to our immigrant ancestor:https://archive.org/stream/historyofcityofn01urqu#page/n161/mode/2u...

"They were all of them, as their names clearly indicate, of English stock, with the exception of Dalglesh (believed to be a curious spelling of Douglass), a Scotchman, and Hans or Hauns Albers, a German or Dutchman, who came with the others from Milford, and who may either have been originally one of the Dutch settlers in and around New York or may have come under Puritan influence during the stay of the Pilgrims in the Netherlands, where there were many German refugees."

Cheers,
Don