Barbara and Ken Bradstreet both are descended from families that have been in America since the 1600s. Barbara's family is descended from the Calkins family of Connecticut whose progenitor John Calkins imigrated to Connecticut from Wales in the mid-1600s. John Calkins was the son of a prominent churchman in Chepstow of Wales, just across the bay from Bristol in western England. The Bradstreet family came to America in 1630 in the first migration of Puritans from England to Massachusetts Bay. Simon and Anne Bradstreet were newly-wed and traveled with Anne's parents, Thomas and Dorothy Dudley. Dudley would soon become one of the first governors of Massachusetts. Anne Bradstreet would become the first published woman poet in the Americas, and her husband Simon would later become governor of Massachusetts following in the footsteps of his father-in-law. Ken's "grandma Bradstreet" Hattie Sabin was descended from another prominent colonial American, Samuel Fuller the Pilgrim physician aboard the Mayflower. Fuller was an original member of the Plymouth Colony and had served the Pilgrim church in Leyden, Holland as deacon. During a time of epidemic Fuller traveled to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to aid the sick at the request of the Massachusetts governor. He likely was acquainted with both Thomas Dudley and Simon Bradstreet. He died as a result of one such epidemic, as recounted in William Bradford's work on the Plymouth Plantation.

Located in the Massachusetts state capitol building in Boston are these tributes to two of Massachusetts earliest governors. At left is a plaque which pays tribute to Thomas Dudley, father of Anne Bradstreet, and one of the first governors of the colony. At right is a portrait of Governor Simon Bradstreet which hangs at the foot of the grand staircase.

Near the village of Topsfield just 20 miles north of Boston stands this stately old homestead known as Bradstreet Hill. Governor Simon Bradstreet owned this farm and bequeathed it to his son John. John's grandson Samuel III built this house in 1763 to replace the original house, possibly destroyed by fire. Samuel's great grandson Austin was the last generation of Bradstreets to live here. The family moved to Rochester NY in 1838.

The signature of Dr Samuel Fuller, the physician aboard the Mayflower

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