ROOTS-L Archives

Archiver > ROOTS > 2000-11 > 140303


From: Shirley Hornbeck <>
Subject: [ROOTS-L] This and That - Thanksgiving
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 06:24:32 -0800


THE MAYFLOWER AND THE FIRST THANKSGIVING:

The Mayflower carried 102 passengers and a crew of 26 plus the captain.
There were 32 children aboard. During the trip one person died and one was
born. What were the accommodations aboard ship like some 350 years ago?
Here are a few ideas.

For 30 days of the 66 day voyage, passengers had to stay huddled below,
between the decks. They could not use candles or lanterns because of fire
hazard. They could not cook between decks unless it was a calm day. Cold
food might be biscuits, pickled eggs, salted or smoked meat, fish, dried
fruits and vegetables. Adults and children alike would drink a weat beer
called "small beer". There was no privacy. No one ever bathed or changed
clothes.

Of the Mayflower passengers, only 23 families or individuals survived that
difficult first winter and left American descendants, while at least one
other passenger, Moses Fletcher, left progeny in Holland. It is estimated
that the progeny of these Pilgrims probably number more than 30 million today.

Passengers on the Mayflower with living descendants today are John Alden,
Isaac Allerton, John Billington, William Bradford, William Brewster, Peter
Brown, James Chilton, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Francis Eaton, Edward
Fuller, Samuel Fuller, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, Richard More, Degory
Priest, Thomas Rogers, Henry Sampson, George Soule, Myles Standish, John
Tilley, Richard Warren, William White and Edward Winslow. There are also
American descendants of some of the members of the Mayflower crew but their
descendants are not entitled to membership in the Society of Mayflower
Descendants. John White of Virginia was one such crewman.

George Enregt Bowman (1860-1941) founded the Society of Mayflower
Descendants and became the first editor of the Mayflower Descendant.

The first national Thanksgiving Day, proclaimed by President George
Washington, was celebrated on Nov 26, 1789 and Thanksgiving has been an
official annual holiday in America since 1863 when President Abraham
Lincoln set the date as the last Thursday in November.

Thanksgiving is an American holiday with roots dating back to the beginning
of this country's settlement by the English, to those settlers who stepped
ashore Dec 4, 1619 at what became Berkeley Plantation near present-day
Charles City, VA and to the better-known group who settled at Plymouth, MA
in 1620. In accordance with the Berkeley proprietor's instructions that
"the day of our ships' arrival.... shall be yearly and perpetually kept as
a day of Thanksgiving," those Virginia settlers celebrated what was the
first Thanksgiving Day in this country by more than a year before the
Pilgrims arrived in New England. Even though Spanish families were in St.
Augustine, FL before 1600, and in the Southwest (New Mexico) by 1615, and
the Jamestown, VA settlement from 1607, it is the Mayflower families who
are intertwined with this annual November celebration.

Click here to go to the <http://members.aol.com/calebj/mayflower.html>; -
MAYFLOWER WEB PAGE. You will find a complete list of the "Mayflower"
passengers, links to every passenger's genealogical and biographical
information plus some early Plymouth passenger lists such as the "Fortune"
in 1621 and the "Anne" in 1623. There is also a history of the
"Mayflower", its dimensions and images as well as information about the
crew and much more.

More This and That Genealogy Tips at my This and That page - url in my
signature below.


----Shirley Hornbeck - -
<http://www.s-hornbeck.com/home.htm>;
HORNBECK SURNAME RESOURCE CETER:
<http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hornbeck/hsrc/home.htm>;
THIS & THAT GENEALOGY TIPS: <http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~hornbeck>;
THIS AND THAT GENEALOGY TIPS is published by Genealogical Publishing Co.
Order from:
<http://www.genealogybookshop.com/genealogybookshop/files/General,General_Re
ference/9377.html>



This thread: