While members of our Delaney branches of the family tree are not related by blood to anyone in the Stocks lineage, certain members of the Stocks line played an important role in the lives of our Delaney ancestors as well as those of my generation, including myself. As the story unfolds, we will see the important role that Carl Winslow Stocks and his wife, Jessica Bernard (Lowery) Stocks had in the history of the Delaneys who decended through the Martin Cleveland Delaney, Jr. and Franklyn Lowery Delaney branches of the family. The web of families connected to the Stocks story also includes individuals in the Abbott, Acker, Lowery and Fincken lines. For the time being, until more research is done, the first documented generation in this story is that of Carl W. Stocks' parents, Harry Stocks and Henriette "Etta" M. (Ramsdell) Stocks.

Harry and Etta had five children, but only three lived beyond childhood: Carl Stocks, Violet Stocks and Esther Stocks. Harold R. Stocks died at age one and his brother Sidney H. Stocks died at age five. I did not even know that Harold and Sidney were members of the family until I discovered their birth and death certificates in 2011. Growing up, I knew almost nothing about Violet. It was only when I became interested in the family history and began to jot down notes from conversations with my father, Frank Delaney, that I learned a bit about Violet Stocks. As a child I had seen references to Esther Stocks, mainly through items that Carl Stocks sent to me. Carl was a stamp collector and so was I. He would send me duplicate stamps for my collection and sometimes the stamps were still attached to the envelopes or envelope clippings. Some of those clippings came from Carl's sister Esther who must have saved stamps for him that she acquired through her personal and workplace mail. Indirectly, therefore, I knew of Esther and furthermore knew that she lived in Ithaca, New York. Beyond that I didn't know much more about Esther Stocks' life, until the past year or so when I began to research her background as part of our larger family history. That's when I discovered that Esther Stocks had been a professor at Cornell from the 1930s until the 1960s.

Unlike his siblings Violet and Esther, Carl Stocks was a part of my life from the very beginning, even before any memories that I have of that period of time. Carl and Jessica Stocks greatly influenced the course my father's life and that of his brother. And, of course, I and my cousins Carol, Leslie, Susan and John Delaney owe much to both of them, too. The story of Carl Winslow Stocks continues here. [link not yet active - Carl Stocks story still in development]

For readers who do not wish to pursue the story in a linear manner, or for those viewers who have come to this site to find a particular individual, the table below may be utilized in order to jump to a particular individual or to that individual's family members. When stories, documents, pictures and other items are made available on this site, I note them on my "What's New?" page for readers who wish to keep up with new information as it becomes available. Also, photographs - individual and group - can be accessed via the Photograph Index.