Congratulations, Stephen, Mary, and Constance Hopkins, for your 100th descendant, Alonzo Alden of New York. You can check out Alden's new listing there and in the Brewster and Alden sections.

I ran across this site and clicked on the link to their research collection to see what sort of records they had. It mentioned photos, so I clicked on that and it took me to their flickr page. You cannot download their photos but you can certainly look at them. Most are of old houses in Duxbury and most of the people there are unidentified but some have names. Duxbury is next door to Plymouth so I figured some of the people in the photos might be related to more than one pilgrim. I figured correctly. One example are the photos of Ziba Hunt and his wife Diane/Diana, whose maiden name turned out to be Chandler. Between the two of them they are Alden-Mullins, Standish, Doty, Samson, Cooke, and Soule descendants, probably more. This was just a cursory look. (Ziba's birth in 1802 and marriage to Diana are in the Samson silver book, Part 3.) I added the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society to the Links page here; feel free to browse and look for ancestors.

The "president's project" of the National Society Daughters of Colonial Wars will be of interest to those of you with Maine ancestry and anyone interested in the settlements Europeans attempted in what is today New England and Canada before our pilgrim ancestors arrived in 1620. Popham Colony, named for leader George Popham but also called the Sagadahoc Colony, was established in 1607 near the mouth of the Kennebec River (modern-day Phippsburg, ME) with 120 male colonists who gave up and went home within the year, for various reasons. The colonists made history by being the first Europeans to construct an ocean-going vessel from the materials found in the New World. They sailed this craft, Virginia of Sagadahoc, home along with other craft in which they had arrived. It later made at least one more round trip to the Jamestown Colony. The DCW is asking for contributions to help defray the costs of reconstructing this ship, a 51', 30-ton seaworthy pinnace. You can see more details about the colony and the ship project at Maine's First Ship. This is a hands-on student learning program as well, in Bath, ME, a city with a strong history of shipbuilding. Information on how to donate is on the Maine's First Ship web site. An eyewitness account of the voyage and settlement, "Relation of a Voyage to Sagadahoc, 1607-1608," can be downloaded from American Journeys, a collection of early American exploration narratives, sponsored by the Wisconsin Historical Society, National History Day (a middle school & high school extracurricular history program), and funded by the Institute of Museum & Library Services (a federal program) and by private donors. 

There is a group based in Columbia Falls, Maine, that ships out evergreen wreaths each December to be laid on the graves at veterans cemeteries across America. Wreaths Across America volunteers go out on the specified Saturday (this year, Dec. 17th) and set them out. Costs are covered by purchasers who pay $15 per wreath, typically to be laid on the grave of a total stranger who served his or her country, though some cemeteries do accept personalized requests. Local groups can also participate in selling the wreaths and in return get a cut, about $5, for their own worthy cause. As an example, the Margaret Warner Wood Detached Tent #1, Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, an Arizona group (full disclosure: I am currently Tent President) is taking part and will put the funds it raises toward the Grand Army of the Republic Living Memorial Scholarship Fund. If you would like to check this out and volunteer to place wreaths or purchase a wreath (Margaret Warner Wood's Group ID# is AZ0057P, if you'd care to send part of your $15 our way) you can contact WAA at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/. The deadline for purchasing at 2016 wreath is Monday, Nov. 28th. You can also attend their Arlington Cemetery event, visit their museum in Maine, volunteer to drive wreaths if you own an 18-wheeler, sign up to be a location coordinator or add a cemetery near you to the list of those that get the wreaths. And please join me and others in setting out these wreaths to honor our departed military and veterans on Dec. 17. I will look for you at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix.

I got this invitation today by email, with a picture of what we in Arizona call a "luminaria," basically a candle inside a paper bag with sand at the bottom to stabilize it. I guess "Illuminate Thanksgiving" sounded better than "Light One Up for Your Pilgrim." The links should all work. Essentially, the message is: "If you can be in Plymouth on Nov. 19th, you're invited to take part; if you can't be there, you're invited to send $5.00."

Join us for ‘Illuminate Thanksgiving’ on November 19
for America’s Hometown Thanksgiving weekend!
“As one small candle may light a thousand, 
so the light here kindled has shown unto many.”
Governor William Bradford ~ Of Plimoth Plantation
 
The year 2020 will mark the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower, and in the first of many events, members of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants will gather in Plymouth for the Plymouth 400 ‘Illuminate Thanksgiving’ program.
 
On November 19, join your Mayflower cousins in Pilgrim attire in a procession led by Governor William Bradford from the Mayflower Society House to Hedge House on the Plymouth Waterfront. There, we will participate in a multi-nation, candle-lighting ceremony and a reading of Bradford's inspirational, "One Small Candle" quote. 

The descendants will then return to the Mayflower Society House front lawn where they will conduct a brief service of remembrance for the Mayflower passengers who traveled to the New World in 1620. The tribute will include 102 luminaries lit in commemoration of our Pilgrim ancestors and their accomplishments.

Can't make it? Click here to donate $5.00 for a luminary
in honor of your Pilgrim ancestor.

Members and non-members are invited to participate in the procession! 

All are welcome to partake in the procession and illumination and we encourage dressing in Pilgrim attire! Please meet at the Mayflower Society House at 3:oo PM on November 19. Following the illumination event, all members and participants in the procession are welcome into the Mayflower Society House for light refreshments. If you would like to join us in commemoration, please RSVP by contacting GSMD Membership Services Manager Georgi Hess at Membership@TheMayflowerSociety.org. 
 
For more information: You can download our full press release here!
 
For more information on America's Hometown Thanksgiving weekend including security, parking, lodging and a detailed schedule of events in Plymouth for Nov. 18-20, visit www.USAThanksgiving.com.

Way to go, Brewsters! The latest edition of the GSMD's Mayflower Quarterly Magazine arrived today and there is a chart on page 20 showing the number of new members by family for the period June 2015-June 2016. William & Mary Brewster won with 205, with the Howland-Tilleys in second place at 196, and the Alden-Mullins family in third with 190 new members. On MayflowerFaces.com, the Warrens are "winning" with 204 pictures but they were fifth in the GSMD's new member "competition." Not surprisingly, there are no Fletchers on the GSMD list and the next-to-last pilgrim is Richard More, with 7. It would be interesting to see how the supplemental applications stacked up.

Please check out the newest entry in the Mystery/Fun Photos section, this time one of the "mysteries." Author William Henry Manning claims that he and his father, William Wallace Manning, are Howland descendants but the 1990 John Howland of the Mayflower, volume 2, says the ancestor they claim is only the reputed daughter of a Gorham and the only person that so claims is William Henry Manning. If you have an old family bible, a baptismal record, a deed of sale, or a will/probate record showing Amy Manning to have been Amy Gorham before her marriage to Samuel Manning and can specify her parents, you can make the 2 Williams very happy because I can move them out of the mystery section and into the Howland-Tilley section.

Welcome to Daisy Maude Goodspeed and her sister Rose Hannah Goodspeed, who posed for a photo together over 100 years ago and thus came to be Warren descendants #s 200 and 201. The Alden-Mullins clan is close behind at 188 but I'm still waiting to hear about ANY Moses Fletcher descendants. C'mon, people! Let me know about any public domain photos you might know of for Moses.