Confused by history and relatives

I've visited this site before and related of my ancestor William Adams

andrew...

Which site?

arriving in the colony 1638. Problem is aligning him with the Shropshire or

andrew...

Which colony?

Somerset ancestors. Some people feel his father was William etc. He advises
Ipswich in the present day Boston area that his father was Henry? Either
way I think William and Henry were most likely related and the family
divided somewhere in Somerset or Shropshire area? What I don't understand is
it is believed that the members of the well known Adams family migrated to
the New World to escape the religious dragoons? Yet a possible ancestor Sir

andrew...

What are religious dragoons?

Thomas Adams maybe a grand father to William apparently was likened enough
to be Lord Mayor of London in 1645. Wasn't this still during the reign of

andrew...

Is this based on anything other than the name?

Cromwell? Maybe the family came here to seek opportunity with grants to land

andrew...

We never had a King Cromwell reign over us.

instead? But I still must connect my William with his true father and

andrew...

Many early settlers to the New World did just that.

ancestors of England which seems to be a most difficult task. I find many
sources and individual postings but as usual they hardly ever get into
siblings so as to find if William was a brother to a Henry etc. One could
only suspect that this would be true if their fathers were either a William
or Henry too.

andrew...

The conventional method is to work gently backwards from oneself, not to
plough indiscriminatly tthrough history trying to attach oneself to
notables who happen to have had the same name.

Yours Aye Andrew Sellon

Hugh Watkins...

I fear very few of those Adams are related to each other

Adam + s = son of Adam a patronym NOT a family surname

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Adams
English (very common in England, especially in the south Midlands, and
in Wales) and German (especially northwestern Germany): patronymic from
the personal name Adam. In the U.S. this form has absorbed many
patronymics and other derivatives of Adam in languages other than
English. (For forms, see Hanks and Hodges 1988.)

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN
0-19-508137-4

like my own Watkins = son of Watkins 99.99% unrelated to each other

you better study another line if you have no evidence of property and wills

good hunting

Hugh W