Family Travel

April 18, 2018 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

Family Vacation Memories

A few weeks ago, I wrote about remembering your childhood memories, and I included a small discussion about family vacations. This week I want to focus more on this great topic: family vacations. It is one that can usually brings some fun happy memories of your parents and brothers and sisters.

Car Trips

When I was young and living in New Jersey (my Dad worked in NYC) we would load into the family station wagon and drive 800 miles through Pennsylvania and Ohio to northern Indiana. It was an all-day trip (the speed limits were 70 mph), leaving early in the morning and arriving in late afternoon, usually in time for dinner. Crowded into the car all day, it was such a long trip for four kids and my mom and dad. I can’t remember how many times we heard, “If you kids don’t behave and keep quiet, I‘m going to pull this car over and let all four of you have it!” Hah — I wonder if they really would have! How many times have told your kids the same thing? Write about your own family vacation stories.

Did you bring the family dog with you on vacation?

Since I grew up in New Jersey, and not on a farm it was so much fun going to Indiana to visit our cousins who lived on a farm. We stayed at our grandparents home very near my uncle’s farm. Every day we would walk down to the farmhouse and play with our cousins. They were both girls. One was just a bit older than me and the other was younger. They had one horse, that we had to catch in the pasture. Once we caught it we rode bare back. I fell off that horse so many times — what fun. We chased the cows and pigs, and we fed the chickens. To us it was fun, but my cousins were glad they could get someone else to do their chores! It seemed like a real Tom Sawyer story.

Growing up, living in New Jersey, we had no family living close. Our trips, usually two weeks long, were our main vacations. I remember so distinctly those long car rides. It’s funny what you remember — we always brought milk and some of those individual cereal boxes (remember the assorted kind). You could open the box along the perforations, pout in the milk and use it as a bowl. Since I was the oldest, I claimed it was my choice of which kind I wanted (everyone wanted the sugar kind) however, my mother did not agree with my claim of seniority! We would stop at a road side picnic table along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

70 mile per hour speed limit sign — Pennsylvania Turnpike 1942 — 70 miles per hour

In the late 1950s and early 1960s they were no nicely built rest areas, just a wide spot along the turnpike where a car could stop and eat at a picnic table. Cars were zipping along going 60-70 miles per hour! Holy smokes — how dangerous was that. The roadside table was maybe only 50 feet from road. We didn’t care — I don’t think my parents cared — it was fun.

How many of you remember “Stuckey’s “roadside stores” They seemed to be everywhere, throughout the country on every freeway exit. Do you remember the pecan log rolls and divinity?

Historic Places

Living on the east coast we often took trips to visit historical sites. It seemed like everything was only a day’s drive away. Colonial sites, Revolutionary War, and Civil War battlefields could all be visited on two or three day trips. In school, it seemed like US History started with the pilgrims and ended at the Civil War. We never learned anything about the west or Native Americans! I remember taking elementary school field trips to nearby revolutionary battlefields, “Jockey Hollow” and Washington’s Headquarters in Morristown, NJ. We could tell you all about Molly Picher and the battle of Monmouth Court House.

Molly Pitcher and the Battle of Monmouth CourtHouse

If you ask my own children, they will tell you we always visited every historical site we could. I think they really loved it but they might not tell you that.

Mystic Village in Connecticut was another favorite site we visited. Located along Long Island Sound it depicted a nineteenth century whaling community. I still have souvenirs collected from many of these places.

Today we collect refrigerator magnets from all the places we have visited. My children are now carrying on this tradition.

The Beach and Mountains

We did not have mountains but the Jersey Shore was a favorite place to go. At least two or three times during the summer we all loaded into the car for the trip to the beach. This carried on into high school where my friends and I would go to the beach all the time during the summer.

As you begin your life history journey, be sure to take the time to think about your childhood family vacations. Maybe all you did was take short trips to visit family, or long trips, write about them. Be sure to write about all the happy and funny things that happened. Find any photos that you have of these vacations and include them in your story!

Here are some topics that might help you recall family vacations:

Did your family have a summer place you went every year?
Where was it located
Have you been back there recently?
Can you describe some of the changes that that have taken place since your family visited?

Have fun on your life history journey, your family will love you for the effort!

November 27, 2017 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

The Real Origins of Thanksgiving

The event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October 1621. This feast lasted three days, and—as told by attendee Edward Winslow—it was attended by 90 Native Americans and 53 Pilgrims. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating “thanksgivings”— days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.

Virginia Thanksgiving, 1619

However, the arrival in 1619 of 38 English settlers at Berkeley Hundred Berkeley Hundred in Charles City County, Virginia, concluded with a religious celebration as dictated by the group’s charter from the London Company, which specifically required “that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned … in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

Berkeley Hundred was a land grant in 1618 of the Virginia Company of London to Sir William Throckmorton, Sir George Yeardley, George Thorpe, Richard Berkeley, and John Smyth (1567–1641) of Nibley. Smyth was also the historian of the Berkeley group, collecting over 60 documents relating to the settlement of Virginia between 1613 and 1634 which have survived to modern times.

In 1619, the ship Margaret of Bristol, England sailed for Virginia under Captain John Woodliffe and brought thirty-eight settlers to the new Town and Hundred of Berkeley. The London Company proprietors instructed the settlers that “the day of our ships arrival . . . shall be yearly and perpetually kept as a day of Thanksgiving.” The Margaret landed her passengers at Berkeley Hundred on December 4, 1619. The settlers did indeed celebrate a day of “Thanksgiving,” establishing the tradition two years and 17 days before the Pilgrims arrived aboard the Mayflower at Plymouth to establish their Thanksgiving Day in 1621.

Thanksgiving at Plymouth

Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the “First Thanksgiving,” including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623, and a Puritan holiday in Boston in 1631. According to historian Jeremy Bangs, director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, “the Pilgrims may have been influenced by watching the annual services of Thanksgiving for the relief of the siege of Leiden in 1574, while they were staying in Leiden.” Now called Oktober Feesten (October Festival), Leiden’s autumn thanksgiving celebration in 1617 was the occasion for a sectarian disturbance that appears to have accelerated the pilgrims’ plans to emigrate to America.

Later in Massachusetts, religious thanksgiving services were declared by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford, who planned the colony’s thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.

Squanto, a Patuxet Native American who resided with the Wampanoag tribe, taught the Pilgrims how to catch eel and grow corn and served as an interpreter for them. Squanto had learned the English language during his enslavement in England. The Wampanoag leader Massasoit had given food to the colonists during the first winter when supplies brought from England were insufficient.

The Pilgrims celebrated at Plymouth for three days after their first harvest in 1621. The exact time is unknown, but James Baker, the Plimoth Plantation vice president of research, stated in 1996, “The event occurred between Sept. 21 and Nov. 11, 1621, with the most likely time being around Michaelmas (Sept. 29), the traditional time.” Seventeenth-century accounts do not identify this as a Thanksgiving observance, rather it followed the harvest. It included 50 persons who were on the Mayflower (all who remained of the 100 who had landed) and 90 Native Americans. The feast was cooked by the four adult Pilgrim women who survived their first winter in the New World (Eleanor Billington, Elizabeth Hopkins, Mary Brewster, and Susanna White), along with young daughters and male and female servants.

painting of Pilgrims and Indians at Thanksgiving table — The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth painted in 1914 by Jennie A. Brownscombe

Two colonists gave personal accounts of the 1621 feast in Plymouth. The Pilgrims, most of whom were Separatists (English Dissenters), are not to be confused with Puritans, who established their own Massachusetts Bay Colony on the Shawmut Peninsula (current day Boston) in 1630. Both groups were strict Calvinists, but differed in their views regarding the Church of England. Puritans wished to remain in the Anglican Church and reform it, while the Pilgrims wanted complete separation from the church.

William Bradford, in “Of Plymouth Plantation” wrote:

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they can be used (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to the proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

Edward Winslow, in “Mourt’s Relation” wrote:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruits of our labor. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which we brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

The Pilgrims held a true Thanksgiving celebration in 1623 following a fast, and a refreshing 14-day rain which resulted in a larger harvest. William DeLoss Love calculates that this thanksgiving was made on Wednesday, July 30, 1623, a day before the arrival of a supply ship with more colonists, but before the fall harvest. In Love’s opinion, this 1623 thanksgiving was significant because the order to recognize the event was from civil authority (Governor Bradford), and not from the church, making it likely the first civil recognition of Thanksgiving in New England.

Referring to the 1623 harvest after the nearly catastrophic drought, Bradford wrote:

And afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers, with interchange of fair warm weather as, through His blessing, caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing. For which mercy, in time convenient, they also set apart a day of thanksgiving… By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine now God gave them plenty … for which they blessed God. And the effect of their particular planting was well seen, for all had … pretty well … so as any general want or famine had not been amongst them since to this day.

These firsthand accounts do not appear to have contributed to the early development of the holiday. Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation” was not published until the 1850s. While the booklet “Mourt’s Relation” was summarized by other publications without the now-familiar thanksgiving story. By the eighteenth century the original booklet appeared to be lost or forgotten. A copy was rediscovered in Philadelphia in 1820, with the first full reprinting in 1841. In a footnote the editor, Alexander Young, was the first person to identify the 1621 feast as the first Thanksgiving.

traditional first thanksgiving painting — The painting — The First Thanksgiving, 1621 — by American painter, Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930) — The scene depicted here is a romanticized (idealized) version and not historically accurate. The clothing worn by the Pilgrims is incorrect. The Wampanoag did not wear feathered war bonnets, nor would they have been sitting on the ground.

According to historian James Baker, debates over where the “first Thanksgiving” took place on modern American territory are a “tempest in a bean pot.” Jeremy Bang claims, “Local boosters in Virginia, Florida, and Texas promote their own colonists, who (like many people getting off a boat) gave thanks for setting foot again on dry land.” Baker claims, “the American holiday’s true origin was the New England Calvinist Thanksgiving. Never coupled with a Sabbath meeting, the Puritan observances were special days set aside during the week for thanksgiving and praise in response to God’s providence.”

Revolutionary Period

Thanksgiving proclamations were made mostly by church leaders in New England up until 1682, and then by both state and church leaders until after the American Revolution. During the revolutionary period, political influences affected the issuance of Thanksgiving proclamations.

Various proclamations were made by royal governors, John Hancock, General George Washington, and the Continental Congress, each giving thanks to God for events favorable to their causes. As President of the United States, George Washington proclaimed the first nationwide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, “as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God.”

Current Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanksgiving is currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. Created by federal legislation in 1941 and has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the Founding Fathers of the United States. Historically, Thanksgiving has traditionally been a celebration of the blessings of the year, including the harvest. What Americans call the “Holiday Season” generally begins with Thanksgiving.

Nevertheless, President John F. Kennedy, in an attempt to strike a compromise between the regional claims, issued Proclamation #3560 on November 5, 1963 stating, “Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together and for the faith which united them with their God.”

August 21, 2017 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

Take a Trip to St. Kilda

St. Kilda is a small island located about 40 miles west from the Outer Hebrides, about 100 miles from the Scottish mainland. The last permanent occupation of the island was in 1930 when the last inhabitants were evacuated. The population had dropped to a low of only 36.

St. Kildans sitting in front of stone houses — St. Kildans sitting on the village street, 1886. Unknown. Property of the National Trust for Scotland — photograph in public domain.

After World War I most of the young men left the island, and the population fell from 73 in 1920 to 37 in 1928. After the death of four men from influenza in 1926 there was a succession of crop failures in the 1920s. Investigations by Aberdeen University into the soil where crops had been grown have shown that there had been contamination by lead and other pollutants, caused by the use of seabird carcasses and peat ash in the manure used on the village fields. This occurred over a lengthy period of time as fertilizing methods became more intensive and may have been a factor in the crop failures and lead to the evacuation of the island in 1930.

The last straw came with the death of a young woman, Mary Gillies. Mary Gillies fell ill with appendicitis in January 1930, and was taken to the mainland for treatment where she later died. On August 29, 1930, the remaining 36 inhabitants were removed to Morvern on the Scottish mainland at their own request. Morvern is located across the Sound of Mull (Isle of Mull) in Lochaline.

The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom, and three other islands (Dun, Soay and Boreray) were also used for grazing and seabird hunting. The islands are administratively a part of the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar local authority area.

The origin of the name St Kilda is a matter of conjecture. The islands’ human heritage includes numerous unique architectural features from the historic and prehistoric periods, although the earliest written records of island life date from the Late Middle Ages. The medieval village on Hirta was rebuilt in the 19th century, but the influences of religious zeal, illnesses brought by increased external contacts through tourism, and the First World War all contributed to the island’s evacuation in 1930.

Videos

The video below produced by Thames TV in Great Britain shows scenes of life on St. Kilda and interviews of evacuated residents from St. Kilda. It is a wonderful look into a historic genealogical past.

This is what genealogical travel is all about. Another great video that was filmed in 1928 showing life on St. Kilda not long before the evacuation.

Both of these videos show life on the island. The inhabitants were so isolated, living more than 40 miles out to sea.

How to Get There

Visiting St. Kilda today although difficult can still be done. Unless you own an ocean going boat, you will be visiting with an organized group, since there is no regularly scheduled transportation to the island. Contacting a travel c0mpany that specializes in ocean travel to the outer islands of Great Britain is a key to a successful trip.

Visiting St. Kilda today although difficult can still be done. Unless you own an ocean going boat, you will be visiting with an organized group, since there is no regularly scheduled transportation to the island. The crossing can be rough, and is only sensible in calm weather. The National Trust maintains the island and during the summer a full time attendant resident on the island. Three options are available:

On a National Trust (NTS) for Scotland Work Party. These are organized in the summer, and last about 2 weeks. The work is either on repairing facilities or archaeology. A cook and a work party leader travel out with the group, and various excursions are organized. These are often over subscribed, and you need to contact the NTS in the autumn for a chance of going in the following summer.
As part of a cruise around the Western and Northern Isles of Scotland. Various weeklong cruises sometimes include St. Kilda in their itinerary if the weather is suitable. Check that the cruise ship has its own smaller boats – zodiacs are ideal – for landing at the small jetty on Hirta. Winds or swell from the east or southeast may make landing impossible. However, a non-landing trip around the islands, especially going close to Boreray and the huge sea stacks covered in Gannets, can be worth going for that alone.
On a day trip. Day trips may be possible from Harris or North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. These will only run when the weather permits. More information can be fund at the www.seaharris.co.uk website. Day trips leaving Leverburgh on the south end of the Isle of Lewis daily at 8:00 am weather permitting. After an almost 3 hour voyage the boat arrives at St. Kilda at 11:00 am and departs at 4:45. This provides the visitor with most of the day to explore the beautiful Island of Hirta and St. Kilda. The cost for the trip is 180 British Pounds or $300.

Visiting St. Kilda is difficult but well worth the effort. Getting to St. Kilda is only half the adventure; a visitor must first get to the Western isles and the Isle of Lewis to catch the boat trip offered by SeaHarris. A ferry leaving the Isle of Skye from the town of Uig on the northwest coast will take you to the Isle of Lewis.

July 15, 2017 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

Family Reunions: What A Great Summer Activity

Did your family get together this summer? Summer time is a wonderful time for families to gather and reconnect. In today’s fast paced times, families can drift further and further apart. Families often live far from each other and we tend to lose the close family relationships we had at an earlier time. Siblings and cousins don’t get the chance to see each other as often as in the past.

Portrait of happy grandfather and grandson fishing together

My own family was scattered across the country, from New Jersey to Alaska and many places in between. I had no cousins living closer than 800 miles to me. Every few years we would all gather at my grandparents’ home in Indiana. A real effort was made for everyone to get together. The cousins would get to know each other and my aunts and uncles would reconnect. It was such fun times for all.

My grandparents lived on a farm that was owned by my uncle. For a city boy (New Jersey) what fun it was spending time on a farm. My brother, sisters and I would spend all day doing things that my farm cousins thought were just work. We had a blast. We took turns riding the horse, herding up the cows, and feeding the chickens. My Uncle, mother’s youngest brother, was single and I’m sure he thought we were all just a pain in the you know what! But we loved to tease him and he was a good sport. He drove us all around the farm and we rode in the back of his pickup truck. Just bouncing around, it is a miracle none of us didn’t fly out.

Organize and hold a family reunion! It really is such fun.

Here is a short list of activities that can bring a family closer together:

If you are holding your reunion near where your ancestors all lived, get a bunch of balloons, tie a spring on them and go to the local cemetery. If you can, use helium to fill them. Have all the children place the balloons (use a rock) on the grave markers that have specific family names on them. When they are all done, it will be amazing how many balloons are fluttering in the air. Children and parents will learn how much of an impact their ancestors had on the small town they lived in. Be sure to let the balloons float free before you leave the cemetery.]
Have everyone bring their family photos, especially old ones, that no one can identify. Spread them out on a table and get everyone’s collective memory to try and identify as many as you can.
Before the reunion assign each family an ancestral family and have them perform a skit that depicts an event in that ancestral family’s life. These skits can all be done during an evening fireside.
Assign each family to prepare a dinner on a separate night. Have the dinner be one meal that was a favorite when they were growing up!
Games are always a favorite. Play ancestral trivial pursuit. Get some spray paint and put colored circles on the ground and play twister. Teach the children some of the games you played as a child.
Don’t forget to bring a video recorder, modern day cell phones work great. Record the stories you tell. Ask you mom and dad about their lives.
Take a family photo. If possible, get a professional and one great photo taken. Make sure everyone gets a copy.
Have the children make something to take home to help you remember the event. This is a plate that each family personalized. My mother helped all the children to customize their family plate.

A plate each family created at a Family Reunion – 1998

One fun way to have a reunion is to go to a special place. Disney World is a great place to hold a reunion. Take a cruise and enjoy the time together or just have it at grandma and grandpa’s house.

Don’t forget to have fun, reconnect with family, especially if it has been a few years.

The family dog on his way to the Family Reunion.

May 26, 2017 By Chip Hughes Leave a Comment

Transcontinental Railroad

May 10, 1869

DONE!

In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, and tasked them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west. Over the next seven years, interrupted by the Civil War, the two companies would race toward each other from Sacramento, California on the west and Omaha, Nebraska coming from the east, struggling against great risks before they met at Promontory Point , Utah, on May 10, 1869.

Along with the development of the atomic bomb, the digging of the Panama Canal, and landing the first men on the moon, the construction of a transcontinental railroad was one of the United States’ greatest technological achievements. Railroad track had to be laid over 2,000 miles of rugged terrain, including mountains of solid granite.

Before the advent of the transcontinental railroad a journey across the continent to the west and the Pacific Ocean meant a dangerous six-month trek over rivers, deserts, and mountains costing up to $1,000. Alternatively, a traveler could hazard a six-week sea voyage around Cape Horn, or sail to Central America and cross the Isthmus of Panama by rail, risking exposure to any number of deadly diseases in the crossing. Interest in building a railroad uniting the continent began soon after the advent of the locomotive. The transcontinental railroad would make it possible to complete the trip in five days at a cost of $150 for a first-class sleeper.

On April 9, 1869, Congress established the meeting point in an area known as Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. Less than one month later, on May 10, 1869, locomotives from the two railroads met nose-to-nose to signal the joining of the two lines. At 12:57 p.m. local time, as railroad dignitaries hammered in ceremonial golden spikes, telegraphers announced the completion of the Pacific Railway. Canons boomed in San Francisco and Washington. Bells rang and fire whistles shrieked as people celebrated across the country. The nation was indeed united. Manifest Destiny was a reality. The six-month trip to California had been reduced to two weeks.

Six years after the groundbreaking, laborers of the Central Pacific Railroad from the west and the Union Pacific Railroad from the east met at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. It was here on May 10, 1869, that Leland Stanford drove The Last Spike (or Golden Spike) that joined the rails of the transcontinental railroad. The spike is now on display at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, while a second “Last” Golden Spike is also on display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. In perhaps the world’s first live mass-media event, the hammers and spike were wired to the telegraph line so that each hammer stroke would be heard as a click at telegraph stations nationwide—the hammer strokes were missed, so the clicks were sent by the telegraph operator. As soon as the ceremonial “Last Spike” had been replaced by an ordinary iron spike, a message was transmitted to both the East Coast and West Coast that simply read, “DONE.” The country erupted in celebration upon receipt of this message. Travel from coast to coast was reduced from six months or more to just one week.

An eyewitness to the driving of the last spike, Alexander Toponce, recalled the following:

When they came to drive the last spike, Governor Stanford, president of the Central Pacific, took the sledge, and the first time he struck he missed the spike and hit the rail.

What a howl went up! Irish, Chinese, Mexicans, and everybody yelled with delight. “He missed it. Yee.” The engineers blew the whistles and rang their bells. Then Stanford tried it again and tapped the spike and the telegraph operators had fixed their instruments so that the tap was reported in all the offices east and west, and set bells to tapping in hundreds of towns and cities. Then Vice President T[Thomas] C. Durant of the Union Pacific took up the sledge and he missed the spike the first time. Then everybody slapped everybody else again and yelled, “He missed it too, yow!”

It was a great occasion, everyone carried off souvenirs and there are enough splinters of the last tie in museums to make a good bonfire.

When the connection was finally made the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific engineers ran their engines up until their pilots touched. Then the engineers shook hands and had their pictures taken and each broke a bottle of champagne on the pilot of the other’s engine and had their picture taken again.

Each year on May 10th the National Park Service celebrates the driving of the last spike (Golden Spike). The Central Pacific’s steam engine Jupiter and the Union Pacific’s engine #119 are fired up and the famous Champagne Photo is recreated. If you are in the area on May 10th make the trip to Promontory Point, about 90 miles north of Salt Lake City (1.5-hour drive). Remember in 2019, only two years from now, the 150th anniversary will be celebrated. Even though no program has been announced, it is sure to be a memorable celebration.