This will respond to your Phillips query and to your January 23 Kennedy - Phillips query (on the Kennedy board) . . .

-- I would be surprised to learn that the parents of Samuel Phillips were Ezra and Rachel (Adams) Phillips. I have long suspected that Samuel was closely related to at least some of those listed in your query, however. Is there evidence for the family group you have listed?

-- Samuel fathered 15 children by the two women you list. Interestingly (to me), all 15 of them "went west" -- although the definition of "west" changed over the years they all grew up and left home. As a result of their many moves I have not found all of them in all censuses. (There have been recent advances in census indexing, however; one of these days, I'm going to re-look for some of the "missing.")

-- Unless I made a mistake (entirely possible), your George W. Phillips and Mary Kennedy (surnamed Canida on their marriage document) were married in Lee County, Illinois, 1850 (not 1856). (The "W." is on the 1910 census. I wish I knew what it stood for.) Their presumed first child, Alice, was born in 1855 and died young. I agree with your listing of the others.

-- You probably know this -- William, born 1857, almost certainly was named for one of George's older brothers. That William was killed in a well-known "incident" in 1856 Kansas (you can now find brief descriptions of it on the internet and Phillips County, Kansas also was named for him). Another brother, Jared, also was well known in early Kansas (and, alas, was killed by Indians while leading a wagon train to California in 1862). (And there were other wanderer - adventurers in the family.)

-- I (almost certainly) descend from George's older half-sister, Laura. She married George Fairchild and, later, also lived in Lee County (as did some other Fairchild and Phillips relations). Their oldest (and my ancestor), Thomas Henry Fairchild, left the family home in Berkshire County, Mass., circa 1851, and went to California.

-- Following is from a history of Lassen County, California: "The sale of [Peter] Lassen's real estate took place in 1859 and Thomas H. Fairchild, who was a partner of Fred A. Washburn in a mine at Rich Bar, came to the valley to buy some." I long have wondered if this reference was to the Rich Bar in nearby Plumas County (which I see mentioned in your queries); his whereabouts in California, circa 1851-59 are unknown to me.

-- I have two 1998 Phillips queries on the Berkshire County GenWeb board that you may find of interest. I also have put up some others on this family; but I can't recall where.

-- Again, I would be interested in knowing of any evidence for the Samuel you list as born in 1780 (though I am fairly sure he was born in 1777 or 1778).

Thanks for your interest.