Jaci Dawn

Trivia: did you know there were already pilgrims successfully living in the New World before the Mayflower dispatched her crew at Plymouth Rock?

I have been playing over on Ancestry.com and going through leaves of paper full of family tree information on both sides of my family (Wilcox on the paternal and Melrose on the maternal).

The Wilcox family can trace back to Agawam, Hampden, Massachusetts in 1600 when John Lee, my 10th-great grandfather was born. The same family line goes back to a different settlement in Massachusetts in 1609 when my 9th-great grandmother, Amy Aylesworth, was born. Chances are they never knew each other. The family line doesn’t come together until sometime before 1823.

Czarina Knowlton, direct descendant of John Lee, married Shepherd Parker, the direct descendant of Amy Aylesworth. Shepherd and Czarina became my 4th-great grandparents.

I find it fascinating to trace all this information. Here were two pilgrim children who lived within 50 miles of each other but quite possibly never crossed paths yet down the road their descendants met and married and tied them to me. And these two pilgrim children were both born before the Mayflower landed in Plymouth.

John Lee was 20 that winter. Amy was 11. I wonder if they had a similar thanksgiving with the Indians? Did they know about the trials of the pilgrims at Plymouth? Or were they wrapped up in their own trials?

I don’t know. All I know is that I am thankful this winter to be able to trace my family back to the winter of 1620 in the Americas. I think that’s pretty cool.

Happy Thanksgiving! And I mean that even if you are a recent immigrant or a Native American or someone who can look back to the Mayflower.

Oh heck, Happy Thanksgiving where ever and whoever you are. It is all about being thankful for the harvest and the people who help you through the hard times, isn’t it?