Come! Share the Journey of Family Heritage Stories, Laced With Patterns of Living Throughout Generations of Time. We Are All A Remnant of A Rich Tapestry, Waiting to Be Rewoven Together.

Welcome

Many of us find ourselves longing for a connection to something, or someone from the days we cannot touch; sometimes inspired by a photograph or a scrap of withering notation we found tucked away between the pages of a book in a long-forgotten trunk, or some emotion we cannot ignore. There seems to be a common thread that connects us all to the past; be it a name, an expression, or a geographical placement in this timeline we call mortality. Whatever it is that connects us, and draws our thoughts and hearts to one another, seems to be the passion that brings us to this blogging thing. My hope for any connection leads me to share with you some commonalities in blogging, daring to claim a place among the great writers; but if nothing more than my own journaling, it will be a tangible way for me to make sense of my own individuality, vulnerabilities, and emotions as I continue on this journey called life. I hope this blog may encourage and uplift.

Thursday, November 22, 2012



A Thankful Heart
As I reflect upon my life as it is today, I realize that all that I am and all that I have, (aside from the fact that they are gifts from a loving Heavenly Father) I owe to my ancestors, who characterized life’s journey with sacrifice, hope and integrity.  Why did they do it? Vision!  With vision, they sacrificed their possessions to sail the great oceans, so they could raise families, and crops in a New Land; with promise of better tomorrows. With vision, they hoped for freedom of religion, to practice what they each believed to be right and honorable, in the sight of Their God, as their moral fiber dictated. With vision, they built a nation on principles of right and wrong, of courageous endeavors, and fortitude. I believe that my right to these freedoms comes from their sacrifices, and through the blood lines that I inherited. I believe that is my right and privilege, and duty to uphold these principles, and to declare, through one of the basic fundamentals of our Nations laws, Freedom of Speech, that the privilege of living in this Nation today, I owe to those few visionary souls who fought for these freedoms in whatever way they felt necessary to do; be it combative, political, religious, or giving up the very breath they breathed, so I could enjoy such extravagances of living as I see fit to enjoy.
My blood-line heritage comes down through Elizabeth Warren, whose father, Richard Warren, was among the passengers of the Mayflower. She married Richard Church, Jr, an early resident of Plymouth Colony, and became my 9th great grandparents.
The following excerpt from a website, quotes Edward Winslow, whose granddaughter, Mary Winslow, married Edward Gray, and after her death, Edward married Dorothy Lettice, who became my 8th great grandparents.   
I am eternally grateful for good men and women who followed their hearts, through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and their convictions to religious freedoms, to a foreign land, so that my birth would be shielded from the hardships that they had to endure. I can choose what I believe, who I believe in, and what to do with my free time. 


THE FIRST THANKSGIVING at PLYMOUTH

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together."
Edward Winslow
In early autumn of 1621, the 53 surviving Pilgrims celebrated their successful harvest, as was the English custom.  During this time, "many of the Indians coming... amongst the rest their great king Massasoit, with some ninety men."

That 1621 celebration is remembered as the "First Thanksgiving in Plymouth." 

http://www.pilgrimhall.org/f_thanks.htm
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