Update on the new Maybury book

Answers to your questions

December 2009

When will the new Maybury book be ready?

Several years ago I began work on a completely new book to reflect the wider Maybury family, beginning with our common ancestor who lived in England from about 1540-1618. The book will also trace the history of several major branches of the Maybury family in Ireland, the U.S., Canada and Australia. It was my hope to have the book ready for publication about 2007. But several things intervened:

• research in England, Ireland and elsewhere has taken more time than anticipated;
• maintaining our Maybury Family web page and Maybury DNA Project are also very time consuming;
• answering requests for information from hundreds of new cousins often takes 20 hours per week;
• the writing process, itself, sometimes leads to the need for additional research; and
• I lost about a year when my wife and I "downsized" our house and moved to a retirement community.

So, where we are now? I am constantly cheered on by hundreds of fans who have helped along the way and look forward to seeing the book. I also have wonderful help of several cousins in England, Ireland, the U.S., and Australia who are excellent researchers. As a result, the manuscript is progressing well and I hope to finish writing in 2010. Allowing time for indexing and other production tasks, I hope that The Mayburys can be still be published in 2010.

Will my family information be included in the book?
Should I send you the details of recent events in my family?

My Mabry book, published in 1987, contained information about thousands of descendants up to the present generation. Since that time hundreds more have sent me detailed information about their families (including their siblings, cousins, etc.) that they would like to have published in the new book. This has resulted in several problems:

• The siblings and cousins may not be aware that their data has been submitted for publication;
• Some of the data sent to me is either inaccurate or contradicts information sent by others;
• Publishing all these descendant listings would result in a multi-volume book which would be very expensive; and
• Many have expressed concern that the publication of their personal data could result in identity theft.

For these reasons, I have decided not to publish information about generations born after about 1920.

The book should still be a great help to those who want to connect their own family to the larger Maybury family. By using census and vital statistics which are now easily available, most people should be able to trace their family back a few generations to connect with a family line in the book. For example, U.S. census records are already available on the internet up through 1930 -- and the 1940 census will soon be released.

What will be the content of the new Maybury book?

The book will begin with the origins of the Maybury in 16th century England and then trace succeeding branches in Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia. The following is the tentative title and table of contents:

The Mayburys

Mayberry.....Maberry .....Mabery
Mabrey.....Mabray.....Mabry

The Mayburys in England and Ireland
. . .Discovering our Maybury origins
. . .John Maybury, Hammerman
. . .Early Maybury Generations in England
. . .The Mayburys of Lancashire and Londonderry
. . .The Mayburys of County Kerry

Early Maybury Emigrants to America
. . .Francis Maybury of Virginia
. . .Ironworker Mayburys in America
. . .The Mayberrys of Windham, Maine
. . .The Mayberrys of Bedford County, Virginia

Later Emigrants to America and Australia
. . .Other early Mayburys in the United States
. . .The Mayburys of Canada
. . .The Mayburys of Australia

Unidentified Mayburys

Maybury Letters and Stories

The Maybury DNA Project

Bibliography

Index

Additional material to be included with the book

Present plans call for the publication of additional material on compact disks to be included with the book:

• Descendant listings for major branches of the Maybury family. These listings will be in a searchable pdf format. However, they will not include information about descendants after about 1920 because of concerns about privacy and identity-theft.
• The Maybury Photo Archive - Included will be about 300 photographs from various Maybury/Mayberry families, mostly taken before 1900.
• The Tanner List of Early Maybury records in England -
Compiled by John Tanner of Berkshire, this listing contains available records of Maybury christenings, marriages and burials found in English parish records, along with wills, contracts and other records which will be useful for those researching their Maybury ancestors in England.

If you would like to be notified when The Mayburys is published --

please send me a message with your name, current e-mail address and postal address. You may also contact me by regular mail at:

Donald E. Collins
3377 Mill Vista Road, Apt. #3207
Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80129

December 2009