JAMESTOWN... ROANOKE... AND THEN THE PILGRIMS : HOW THEY MADE IT

The earliest American history is that of the Native Americans or pre-Colonial. Then Columbus and the Spanish explorers, then early colonies of the English, Dutch... Of course, there's a possibility that many others made it to our shores through migration, exploration, and ship wrecks.

I thought this video by the World History Channel was well made and interesting... 

The Pilgrims were religious Christians who were in conflict with the Protestant Church of England. They fled due to religious prosecution. King James gave permission for them to establish a colony in Virginia and Virginia was a great expanse at the time including parts of what is Pennsylvania and North Carolina today. William Bradford, one of those passengers on the ship named the Mayflower, left a journal and so we know a lot about their voyage... They departed weeks late and their provision ship, the Speedwell, leaked so they went on without it. They bravely went to an unknown country, going onshore far from their original notions of a destination and faced a harsh winter climate. They had not landed in Virginia at all.

CANNIBALISM HEADHUNTING and HUMAN SACRIFICE IN NORTH AMERICA by GEORGE FRANKLIN FELDMAN : THREE MILLION NORTH AMERICANS HAVE AN ANCESTOR WHO WAS ON BOARD THE SHIP

CANNIBALISM HEADHUNTING and HUMAN SACRIFICE IN NORTH AMERICA by GEORGE FRANKLIN FELDMAN

From Chapter 4:

"Curses on You, White Men!" Pilgrims and Indians page 50 "An examination of the invasion of North America by Europeans during the first 150 years after Columbus invites certain generalizations about the motivations and actions of the Spanish and French when compared to the English. The Spanish searched for gold, and cared little for the natives they met and showed them no mercy. The French were more interested in trade, and by the Indian's own accounts, were reasonably kind and tolerant. In a broad sense, during those early years, both the Spanish and the French came to the New World to find something of value to take home to the motherland. Not so, the English. They came to take the land. Some three million North Americans claim an ancestor who was aboard the MAYFLOWER when that ships' first few explorers came ashore at Cape Cod in November,1620, hundreds of miles from their intended destination.

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THE GENERAL SOCIETY OF MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS : SILVER BOOK PROJECT

https://themayflowersociety.org/ featuring genealogy tips, and much more.... Have you heard you're a Mayflower passenger descendant. Is this the time to find out for sure?

SILVER BOOK PROJECT


Excerpt: Today, there are twenty-two volumes of the Silver Books with multiple parts that make up the forty-two book catalog. Volumes One, Two, and Five have been superseded and are no longer in print. The Mayflower Society publishes all the Silver Books which are for sale in the The Mayflower Society store and on the website. The fifth generation is digitized, indexed, and available on the New England Historic Genealogical Society website in a database called Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880.The Silver Books Project team consists of researchers, reviewers, and editors. They are skilled genealogists and writers that analyze complex genealogical problems and time periods where various records may or may not be available. When vital records aren’t available, other sources are used to link the generations together.

There are various volumes being revised and updated at any given point. The goal is to publish research on all families through generation seven, naming generation eight. Some volumes have not been updated for decades, but we plan to address every family. It takes many hours of research to complete a book, often years in the making.

For an idea imagined in 1959, the project is still going strong with more and more books added every year. Little did they know they were creating one of the crowning jewels of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. It’s a privilege to be a small part of this decades-old endeavor.

ARA OSHAGAN : HOW THE FUTURE MAY HOLD : MEMORIAL ART : ARMENIAN GENOCIDE : AT THE LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY - CENTRAL

Recently visited the Los Angeles Public Library to do some genealogy research and also had the time to stop into this exhibit which will be on display till January 11. 2026

PHOTOS FROM WILMINGTON CEMETERY - SECOND OLDEST IN LOS ANGELES - LIST OF VETERANS OF THE CIVIL WAR

I don't believe in photographing gravestones that belong to people I'm not related to, but I did take a couple photos of MEMORIALS in this cemetery.  As stated on the previous post, there are a number of burials of military associated soldiers from multiple conflicts.

Wilmington Cemetery is said to have over 9000 burials but then most must be in unmarked graves. This list of CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS is INTERESTING. I wonder if these are persons who died in the Civil War or who were veterans who had served and if they were all local men.  I also wonder if they ever lived at the Drum Barracks about a mile away.

I claim copyright on these photos but if you're using them for your personal Genealogy book that you're distributing to your family it's OK to use them i.e. noncommercial use.

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VISITING THE SECOND OLDEST CEMETERY IN LOS ANGELES : HISTORICAL WILMINGTON CEMETERY : MY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS AS A GENEALOGIST

I was recently able to visit the second oldest cemetery in Los Angeles, in Wilmington, California which is in the South Bay area not far from the Port of Los Angeles (which is the Ports of San Pedro and Long Beach).

WILMINGTON CEMETERY

People had begun decorating for the Day of the Dead celebration there with marigolds and other flowers and vibrant decorations. There are some fairly recent burials and a good number of them are of Hispanic people, likely Roman Catholic.  Many of these gravestones have images - be they photos or some new etching technology - of the person or the couple - who are buried.  It is my idea that some families are adding their loved ones to graves that have been in the family a while.

But more on the burials in a bit.

This is a flat gravestone cemetery and from the signage I had no idea how large it really is until I got into it. It's a square of land with some old trees not far from the railroad tracks with some of the containers that came on ships to the harbor visible.

It was established in 1857 by Phineas Banning. That means that it was in existence before Phineas Banning built his large house across the way in 1864. There are some very old burials there.

HISTORICAL MARKER DATABASE - WILMINGTON

Excerpt: It is the oldest active graveyard in Los Angeles. Pioneer families buried here include Banning, Carson, and Sepulveda. There are 37 Civil War veterans, and soldiers from the Spanish-American War and from the Normandy D-Day invasion.

***

This is the cemetery used by some of the Bannings who lived in the Banning House. Which is a ten minute walk away in a beautiful well-kept park. 

The Banning family had a number of children who died as babies buried there.  And a wife who died relatively young.  A William Banning has a grave stone that states that he was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1841 and died in Wilmington, California in 1891. Yes, Wilmington in California was named after the town in Delaware and the Bannings started out as Yankees, which might have everything to do with Phineas siding with the Union for the Civil War.

BANNING HOUSE - THE BANNING MUSEUM 

Excerpt: Phineas Banning—entrepreneur, the founder of the city of Wilmington, and “the Father of the Port of Los Angeles”—built the 23-room residence in 1864. Subsequent generations lived in it until 1925; in 1927 the residence, stagecoach barn, and the surrounding 20 acres of parkland were acquired by the City of Los Angeles.

***

It also not far from the Civil War Barracks which Phineas Banning donated to the Union Army during the Civil War.  DRUM BARRACKS ORG

The Drum Barracks has an archive but my experience with that was that they would prefer you do your research elsewhere since much or all of the archive is duplicated elsewhere.  Information I sent a few years ago was also not acknowledged. 

According to one of the employees of the Wilmington Cemetery, the land there used to be water wells for the merchants during Banning's time.

I spent about an hour walking around the memorials.  It is said that there are over 9000 burials there. Certainly it did not seem so, and there were areas where there were no gravestones at all.

To my reader-genealogy researchers, please remember this is the case with many cemeteries and one should not entirely rely on grave-stone databases. If you suspect or know that an ancestor was buried in a cemetery contact that cemetery for information. It helps if you have the death certificate that states the burial took place there, or a funeral home record.

I did not take photos of any of the graves, which I think of as disrespectful.

One of the most interesting was a small slab that announced the death of a one month old Japanese or Japanese-American baby.  

There is a street in Wilmington called Opp. Opp burials included someone born in 1848 who died in 1906. I imagine they may have had some land - a farm.

There is at least one 'died in Korea' marker, some that indicate World War II took their man, and a couple that indicated that the person had served in a state militia or reserve.  Last Memorial Day (2025) a local boy scout troop provided a memorial with the names of local men who had served their country.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were no longer wars on this earth?  (As I told a good friend of mine the other day who said "that won't happen," then I would like to be reincarnated on a better planet.)

The babies and children who died long ago made me think of vaccinations and what a difference they have made. Anyone who has seen the archival documents that reveal the babies and children who died of childhood diseases, the adults who died of TB, and the townsfolk who died of various 'plague' must know that.

Besides Mexican or Hispanic burials there were also some surnames that were Germanic or Italian or English.  I don't often visit cemeteries, but I'm intrigued by the art and design of some stones and try to imagine what ornate ones must have cost when they were made. There were a good number of Masonic symbols on graves in this cemetery.

I like to find not just the oldest burials but burials of those who got a long life out of this one. Here's a little name dropping. LIPKING 1822-1909, COATES died 1914 at 71 years old, OPP 1848-1906.

I have come to hate Halloween for all the gore and horror and fright and violence it now celebrates. We actually do not need to be exposed to more violence or participate in that. I'm into the acknowledgement of those who came before us though.  This is why, though I have no Hispanic or Mexican heritage, I'm more likely to contribute to a celebration such as Day of the Dead.  

Christine

ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT

Our genetic and spiritual ancestors help us with our research quests 

and, while we follow a linear research path, 

amazing dreams and synchronicity abound. 

We explore multicultural ancestry worship 

and the use of genealogy for past-life verification, 

as well as practical ways and means to achieve your research goals.

AUTUMN ARRANGEMENT

 

LOVE and HATE IN JAMESTOWN by DAVID A. PRICE: ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW

LOVE and HATE IN JAMESTOWN by DAVID A. PRICE: ANCESTRY WORSHIP BOOK REVIEW (First published on this blog on February 9, 2019)

PROMISED to clear away the misconceptions and half truths, let's start with that explorer Captain John Smith never had a romance with Pocahontas, who was about 11 years old when she first saved his life.  She was the favorite of Powhatan, the "King" of a great Native American Nation, one of his children by his many wives.  For those of you who may be seeking ancestry connected to Powhatan, consider that he'd take a wife and discard her after she had a child by him, which sounds like a strategy to spread you genes to me. (In European Feudal times the Lord of the Manner, or the owner of the Estate, sometimes also had rights to have sex with a woman before she married another subject.) Captain Smith was appreciative, after all the maiden saved his life twice, but if she had a thing for him, he considered it a platonic relationship. Smith was never in his 40 years or so of life known to have a romantic relationship with any woman.  

In 1607 the first three ships, all quite tiny really, landed in Virginia with an attempt to colonize. (The Spanish considered this part of the country to be theirs and recognized "French America." The British were far behind in their attempts to colonize.) In 1608 a second supply of colonists arrived including the first woman, the wife of a gentleman, and her maid. With 200 men to this one unmarried maid, well, she was soon married. Speaking of the gentleman class - the leisure class - of passengers, they apparently expected to have adventures but not to have to work.  But not for long.  Captain Smith basically ruled that if you did not work, you did not eat.

Captain John Smith had military experience, having been in warfare in Hungary, but he was not expected to rule the colonies. Deaths in the colony allowed him to rise to the task and he did so well. Considering that he and the Englishmen had to try and understand the Native American culture they encountered, he showed patience and cunning. Smith knew how to bluff and so the starvation of the colonists was at best delayed.

In this book, you'll read about the relationships between the English and Native Americans, what worked and what did not. Smith was set aside when the "real" leaders arrived and that's when the bloodshed began. 

Pocahontas was converted to Christianity, married an Englishman and gave birth to the first Native-American/ English child. She traveled to England and was introduced to society as a woman of rank but she didn't live long. She had been told John Smith had died.  When she saw him in England she was not amused.

Also of interest, besides Hungary being a training ground for Smith, is that some Germans and Poles came to be craftsmen, to make of glass for and example, and so on in the New World. Thus central Europe and Europeans are part of this story.

Finally, yes there was cannibalism.

C 2019 - 2025 Ancestry Worship Genealogy - All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.  This post has been slightly edited July 2019

ALLEN COUNTY INDIANA LIBRARY : ACPL GENEALOGY CENTER OFFERINGS : AFRICAN AMERICAN GATEWAY

ALLEN COUNTY GENEALOGY CENTER : AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCH 

There is a lot to find here about African Americans in the United States but the list of other countries intrigues me:

Africa Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Brazil British Isles Canada

Caribbean Cuba England Europe France Grenada Haiti

Ireland Jamaica Latin America Liberia Mexico Netherlands Norway

Oceania Philippines Sierra Leone South Africa West Africa West Indies

I clicked on Sierra Leone and discovered that some Black people were loyalists to England and can be linked to Nova Scotia. I went back and clicked on the subject of RECONSTRUCTION. Up comes a list of books that focus on the Freedman's Bureau as well as politics.

Definity explore these offerings!

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MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE

 

ALLEN COUNTY INDIANA LIBRARY : ACPL GENEALOGY CENTER OFFERINGS : OPEN YOUR MIND WITH THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF NORTH AMERICAN GATEWAY

ACPL GENEALOGY LIBRARY DATABASES

Indigenous Peoples of North America Gateway .... Let's click on that and look at Indigenous Peoples of North America Snapshot

Up will come the list of books this library owns.  Reading it you may find a title that has been digitalized elsewhere or on your local library shelf. 

There are also links to collections which are on microfilm that reside at the library for use there. Once again, look for the title elsewhere. 

Many of us have heard of THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES census roles.  However, other census of Native Americans were made. 

There are also learning links such as to the NATIONAL ARCHIVES on Native Americans on the Federal Census (where they appear as part of the count of the general population rather than tribal focus census) such as this: American Indians in the Federal Decennial Census, 1790-1930

I can say that in looking this over, there are some tribal names I don't think I ever encountered.

Many ancestors await being found!

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