My Pilgrim Story

My Pilgrim Story
If you read here, you know that I have been pretty scarce, especially in September and October. It was good for me to take the break from writing and commenting. Further, it allowed me the time to pursue some other interests and areas that had been neglected. 

One of those areas was my interest in genealogy. Last year, I shared the story about finding my mother's mother's mother's family. I learned that that line came to this country in 1635 where they settled in the Worcester area of Massachusetts. I also learned that I was related to my  blogging buddy Jill!  It is true that, if you hang out in Blogdom long enough, you might find your relatives. Ha! That post was called *Land of Light.*

Today, a week before Thanksgiving, I want to tell you my Pilgrim story/ies. Did I hear a collective groan out there? ☺

This time, I turned my attention to my father's side of the family, specifically his mother's mother's family. You may have seen my great-grandmother — she's that little lady in the vintage photo in my header just below her six times great-grandparents John and Priscilla Alden. Can you believe it?!

Long-time readers have been introduced to my great-grandmother before in a post called *Old Photos* and another called *Treasures.* I was an adult when my great-grandmother passed away at the age of 92. How blessed I was to have known her! To my knowledge, she never knew who her famous ancestors were. (In fact, her memory of ancestry was pretty vague. She once told me what her mother's name was and I dutifully wrote it down in my notebook, but that person turned out to be her grandmother. No wonder I was having such trouble pushing back!  She can be forgiven for this because she was only eight years old when she lost her mother.)

~my paternal grandmother's parents~

I have been so excited about this discovery that I can hardly see straight. We are descended from the Aldens' daughter Sarah who married Andrew Standish. He was the son of Myles/Miles Standish. You may remember, if you are of a certain age (about 150 or so), the epic poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It tells the family legend that Little Henry often heard when he was growing up of the two suitors of Priscilla Mullins.  My father used to often quote the phrase, "Speak for yourself, John Alden" when I was growing up. I did slog through it recently and I liked the description that either Priscilla or John gives Myles..."he's a little chimney of a man" or something like that. Yes, Myles was a soldier and he had a hot temper. 

And while that is all exciting, there's more! When my thirteen times great-grandmother was a young woman  living in Leiden, Holland  (where The Separatists first relocated), she also had two suitors. One was Thomas Southworth who became her first husband; the second was William Bradford. Her name was Alice Carpenter and you can read more about her by googling. It is a fascinating story and I am only going to hit the highlights. William Bradford (the writer of The Mayflower Compact and the second governor of Massachusetts) would go on to marry Dorothea and they would travel on The Mayflower to the New World.   One day, while William was scouting for a good place to settle, Dorothea either  leapt or fell overboard and drowned. She had been distraught over leaving their son behind with family so there has always been some question. It was a tragedy to lose her that way after making the harrowing trip across the Atlantic.   Meanwhile, back in England (where The Separatists were living after the time in Holland), Alice's first husband (my ancestor) died leaving her a widow with two young sons Thomas and Constant. When William Bradford learned the news of her loss, he wrote Alice a letter asking her to become his wife. Within two years, she had joined him in Plymouth and they were married. Her sons came later and grew up with William Bradford as their step-father. They were both named in his will. Alice's son Constant was my ancestor. Constant becomes a popular name in the family with a number after him also being given the name. I think  it's a great name.
Many interesting connections can be found between those early Pilgrims. Let's face it, for a while there, they didn't have too many others around. One is that William Bradford officiated at the wedding of John and Priscilla Alden.
  From there, we had a slight name change from Southworth to South*** ; in fact, my little Grammie was the last to have this name in our family (her maiden name). Following the name change, there was a settling of successive generations in Maine. I  found more Revolutionary War soldiers (a father and son) and another Civil War soldier. And, oddly enough, I discovered that some of these Pilgrim descendants were born and lived in the town where my sister now lives. 

I had my own beloved step-grandfather and my grands do love John who is their step-grandfather so it is a thrill to know that William Bradford is another in a long line of step-grandfathers. This is what he had to say about the Pilgrims' departure from England

With mutual embraces and many tears, they took their leaves of one another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them...but they knew they were pilgrims and looked not much on those things, but lifted their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.

Now I hope that I have not bored you entirely. My own children are completely unimpressed with my revelations. Thankfully, a few other relatives show more interest.

I shared the news with my grandsons last Saturday. They are 8 and 7.  "Do you know anything about the Pilgrims?" I asked. They knew a few things mostly about The Mayflower and Squanto. "You're related to the Pilgrims." They sat quietly taking that in. Then they wanted to know their relatives' names. They wondered why their surname did not match. The youngest grand's eyes lit up, "I have a friend Tommy (name changed) Alden. He must really be related to them." I'd not be surprised. He and ten million others. 

They were learning, like me, that just because your surname doesn't match any on the passenger list, doesn't mean that one is not related. In fact, I am very close to proving that the other side of my great-grandmother's family was also related to yet another Pilgrim. Both her parents were from Pilgrim stock! When my daughter found out that I had told her nephews the big news, she groaned audibly, "Mom, they're going to tell everyone at school! They'll think they are crazy!" Now I can't imagine why that would be because the boys would only be telling the truth. It's just a good thing I didn't know when I was a child because I would have been insufferable!   If you're still here, thank you for reading all this. Say, are you also one of the ten million? You may be and not even know it!

Edited to Add October 13, 2016: I have continued working on My Pilgrim Story in the months following my initial discoveries and have gone on to find more connections back to the Aldens specifically. Apparently, I had a few multiple great-grandparents who married cousins who were also descended from the Aldens. No surprise there as there weren't that many people to choose from back in the day.
My father was a bit confused about his connection to The Pilgrims. He was trying to connect his surname to them and could not. "How is the H family related to The Pilgrims?"
"They are not except that your father had the good sense to marry your mother whose family is related to them,"  I replied. 
My grandson Sam had had similar difficulty. "The Mayflower must have sailed by Italy on the way over, " he said. I know I shouldn't have, but I laughed out loud. We are going to have to have a little math lesson on family trees. Not to mention another history lesson. He will like that!

Another Adventure

The gravestones are like rows of books bearing the names of those whose names have been blotted from the pages of life; who have been forgotten elsewhere but are remembered here.

~Dean Koontz from Fear Nothing 

Last time my sister and I went on an adventure we found a four times great-grandfather (one of 34, if no relatives marry one another, which can really throw one for a loop). He was buried in a cemetery not far from us. I enthusiastically shared that he was "up near (our friends) Dan and Marta." My sister responded with, "I had no idea that they had passed." They haven't. My communication skills need honing.

This time, I found his (the 4x great-grandfather's) 

parents — both father and 

mother — and even some siblings buried together in a quaint church yard about 45 minutes from here. The odd connection this time? John's sister lives right around the block!

This meant that John would go along for the ride, get dropped off to visit his sister, and we would return to fetch him after we had found the ancestors in a graveyard where over 700 people are buried. It seemed a daunting task.

And indeed I felt pretty overwhelmed at first glance.

~standing at the main gate~

Would you believe that I am looking directly at their stones? Didn't know it then, of course, so set off to wander through looking for names and dates. We determined that we would look in the early part (the beginning) and very quickly my sister found them and, thing is, she kept on finding "them." This cemetery is home to many relatives. With each family having ten and more children, they do add up. It will be quite simple to return and label each photo with family relationship. There are sea captains, farmers, potters, and merchants. 
Oh ours? 

Rebecca and Payne are siblings resting here with their parents. Thing is Rebecca and Payne are also their grandparents' names (they are buried in Gloucester, Massachusetts) and also their mother's brother and sister. Those particular names were recycled three times that we know of! It gets crazy.

~E.B.C~

This 5x great-grandfather (one of 64) is the son of the Revolutionary soldier. As far as I know, this man did not serve in any war, though his grave is marked with a G.A.R. star. (A veterans' group meaning Grand Army of the Republic). We must investigate this further. This means that I must. My sister wishes to go along for the ride without doing the research. That she leaves to me. I have to tell her stories to get her to understand the significance of what we are doing...something like this:

Nan(a) was born in 1909. Just two years before, her great-grandmother Nancy died in Gloucester and was buried there. She was a Civil War widow and had been widowed for forty years. Nancy's father is buried in the forest hill cemetery we found in July. We are visiting her paternal grandparents today. 

This seems to work. Ha!

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful old cemetery well cared for, those white stones gleamed in the sun. There are beautiful daylilies blooming in that row and the church is beyond charming. They (the 5x great-grandparents) helped to found it. I have learned that this grandfather was an "old-time Baptist" until he became persuaded that Universalism was the way to go. This means that he thought God so loving that He could not banish anyone to hell and that, one day, all humanity will be saved. 

There is something inscribed on the grandmother's stone, which we can not quite see. Initially, we thought it said, "She hath endured all she could," which makes for a strange engraving. But passing away at 91 in that time may account for such a message. More investigating must be done. We tried a light rubbing and that did not work. Next we'll try a mirror or something.

If we continue back, we must go to New Hampshire, Gloucester, Mass and Haverhill, Mass. After that, it's a trip across the sea to England where the lines dry up at about the year 1400. Ha!

After a little over an hour of wandering about, taking photos and finding many more relatives, we retrieved John and visited with his sis for a short while. Then we went straight out to lunch and afterward home in thunderstorms. It was a very pleasant day!

ツ

An Adventure

My sister and I have been on a few adventures through the years searching for the relatives. These usually involved day trips that took us to Moncton, New Brunswick, Hopewell Cape, NB or Gloucester, Massachusetts. We would have more questions at the end of the day than when we started. This has been going on all our adult lives.
Yesterday, my sister contacted me to say that she had the day off...what did we want to do? She was quite surprised to learn that I had a plan involving yet another search for a relative that would take us just minutes down the road. Oh the irony!
Over the weekend, I had been looking online again for more information. (I am simply amazed at how  often new information is added to the family files. Jill was right. Look often! [You may remember Jill's and my connection mentioned back in November.])   Would we find this four times great-grandfather of ours? We have yet to find his daughter, though we have found her son, our Nan's beloved grandpapa.

Past the lake and up the hill...now the road becomes a dirt road and still we forge on.

  Our first glimpse. How odd to find a graveyard right in the middle of the woods.

I am grateful that Sis can get down and crawl around a bit. I sure can't.
Did we find him? We sure did and it adds another bit of closure. His time and ours on this earth are only separated by 75 years. I find that interesting to think about.

Then we went out to lunch, walked through the garden, shopped at the gift shop. It was a lovely day.

A good one to you...

Land of Light

Another Note Card Party in the can. Thank you so much for making it fun and for being a good visitor who leaves comments and for sharing your talent and beautiful photographs with us! The next Note Card Party will be December 18.

My love for Pilgrims was fostered early in a first grade classroom by Mrs. Pulsifer. She is the very one who taught me Psalm 23 and The Lord's Prayer. She also loved Thanksgiving and so things really began to pick up once November rolled around.

Perhaps she had ancestors who arrived on The Mayflower; perhaps she was a Daughter of the American Revolution as well. Whatever, she could surely tell some stories.

It takes things awhile to come full circle around here. I could let today's particular closure go without discussing it, if I weren't writing this here blog for the benefit of my family. (Hahahahahaha...I do crack myself up. Actually, quite to the contrary, I had a family ban on reading my blog for years. When they did read it, they tiptoed in and tiptoed out. Sometimes I caught them; most of the time I didn't.) 
It was way back on a post written in November 2007 that I pondered what painting hung on the back wall of my first grade classroom. I had not remembered correctly at that time — close, but not quite right; however, when I saw it recently, I recognized it immediately!

~Too Near the War-Path by George H. Boughton~

Yup. Something like that portrait will stay with you! It certainly has for me. It hung on the back wall of the classroom above the piano. I think of it as being a large, framed print. I would never have been able to guess that my ancestors had such experiences as this young couple portrayed in this painting of being too close to the War Path. 
While wandering the genealogy paths that I have recently found, I learned some interesting, even shocking, things. This list starts slowly and gains speed ☺:
1. First of all, my grandmother's maternal grandfather's parents were second cousins so this becomes a double line.
2. My three times great-grandfather (Hezekiah) was a Civil War veteran.
3. My five times great-grandfather (Joshua) was a Revolutionary War veteran.
4. My first ancestor in that line came to this country in 1635 — that's not much later than the Pilgrims. He was my eight times great-grandfather (George).
5. George had many children. One daughter, a mid-wife, was caring for a multiple great-grandmother of Jill's(Jill's World of Research, Reaction and Millinery)when the unthinkable happened.(I find it fascinating that here Jill and I have been hanging out together in Blogdom for some years now and our ancestors were hanging out together way back in 1697. Good thing I remembered Jill's story!) 
Jill has told the remarkable, even controversial, story of her ancestor (and mine) on her blog. If you ever need a good great fascinating read, I point you to it *here to get started* (though she wove an incredible tale beginning somewhere early in March of 2007...she is a research librarian after all) and *here in some final musings*. Jill tells the story with compassion and love. I am not equal to that task and so I am very glad that Jill has already done it. Edited to Add: Jill actually has a very handy label in her sidebar that pulls all her posts on this subject together chronologically. It's called Dustin Family Saga. 
I find myself astonished that, as a New Englander, I have roots that go back nearly to the beginning of American history. (You may remember my describing my investigation into my family history as if my family must have crawled out from under a rock because I could find so little. If you are searching, keep searching from time to time. New information is being added to the web all the time.) If you have lived in an area all your life and your family is tucked all around you, you may discover roots that go way back, too.   Now I know that the Bible specifically teaches (1 Timothy 1:4) that genealogy is not something to spend much time pondering and I believe that. Genealogy is not an important thing, though I could make a case that not only does math prove God, genealogy does, too, because genealogy is so very mathematical. Eventually, we're all going back to you know who in The Garden of Eden. I kid you not. Do the math!
I well remember my uncle telling me, after his taking many genealogy classes about twenty-five years ago, that 16 generations back everyone on earth is related. When I told him the Garden of Eden bit, he blinked hard several times. He found that a titch more difficult to comprehend.
I have more to say about this adventure into the family archives, though I'll save it for another time, probably writing on a Saturday when no one is around to read.☺
Today, I want to close with a testimony my five times Great-Grandfather Joshua's mother Ruth (six times great-grandmother) gave. She lived in perilous times before the country had even been established. Abenaki Indians had been responsible for the horrific deaths of her parents in a raid on Haverhill, Massachusetts in the early 1700s. (I wish to add that that was then and this is now. Different times, different sensibilities.) Even so, Ruth could say this:
I desire to be thankful that I was born in a Land of Light where I have heard the Gospel preached and the Bible read...I have had encouragement from many places, John 6:37, Isaiah 1:18, John 7:37, Revelation 3:20 and 22:17. I desire the prayers of all God's people for me that I may walk and be found among Christ's people when He takes up His jewels. 
We, too, are living in a challenging time in history, yet we still live in this Land of Light where we may hear the Gospel preached and the Bible read. Let's push back against every effort to change our freedoms of religion or any other freedoms.
Thanks for reading such a lengthy post with so many links. Blessings!