Climbing My Family Tree: Part 27

First Encounter Beach

Immigrants Richard Warren and Elizabeth Walker

Pilgrim Richard Warren

While visiting Cape Cod last fall, I made a point of finding my way to First Encounter Beach in the town of Eastham. This was the beach where some of the passengers and crew of the Mayflower first interacted with the indigenous people of the Cape. The encounter wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t peaceful.

My 10x Great Grandfather, Richard Warren, was part of that initial encounter.

First Encounter Beach, Eastham, Massachusetts

Most of us remember the story of the Plymouth Pilgrims from elementary school. After almost ten brutal weeks at sea, the Mayflower, with her 102 passengers and a crew of around 30, arrived in America, dropping anchor near the tip of what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Thursday, November 9, 1620. They had crossed the Atlantic at an average speed of just two miles per hour.

Climbing My Family Tree, Part 11E

Immigrant Rev. John McLeish

This is the third of four known letters authored by Rev. John McLeish (my three times great-grandfather) on his journey from Massachusetts to California during the gold rush of 1849. This letter was published in The Boston Olive Branch on December 15, 1849.

Climbing My Family Tree, Part 11C

Immigrant Rev. John McLeish

This past week Wartburg College Professor of History, Terrence J. Lindell, contacted me through my WordPress account. While conducting research for a course he teaches on the gold rush of 1849, Professor Lindell discovered four letters my three times great-grandfather Rev. John McLeish wrote while on his trip from Melrose, Massachusetts to the gold mines outside Sacramento, California in 1849. Professor Lindell was kind enough to share the letters with me.

Origins of White Supremacy

Last month I came across a YouTube video entitled, Understanding White Supremacy (And How to Defeat It). It is an interesting post that runs just over three minutes. You can get to it by clicking HERE.

The piece was published on September 12, 2017, and has garnered just over 1,000 views. It was posted by acttv, which states on the site: “Do more than watch. Your home for progressive, action-oriented video from a grassroots, social-media community.”

Climbing My Family Tree, Part 26

Immigrant Thomas Burgess I & Dorothy

The Burgess family line was one of the most challenging for me to investigate to date. There is a great deal of confusing and conflicting information regarding the origin of the family name. After careful research, the following captures my best understanding of this branch of my family tree.

Thomas Burgess I (my ten times great-grandfather), was born in West Tanfield, Yorkshire, England in 1603. He arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1637. He briefly lived in Salem, Lynn, and Duxbury, before settling in Sandwich. He became a well-respected townsman and acquired a great deal of land.

Thomas Burgess, Jr. left the Plymouth Colony and moved to Newport, Rhode Island in 1661, where the family remained for two more generations until Benjamin Burgess (my six times great-grandfather) moved to from Newport, Rhode Island to Newport, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Benjamin Burgess, Wayne, Maine, aged 101 years, 9 months

 

Coming to America

When I look in the mirror, I see an American immigrant. And yet, how can that be?

I am a white male, I hold an advanced college degree, I speak fluent English, I am 55 years old.

Aren’t immigrants people of color? Don’t they only speak foreign languages? Aren’t they younger and less educated? Those are the stereotypes.

Playing the Race Card

What exactly is race, and why is it such an issue in our culture today?

According to Merriam-Webster, race is a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits. But if we are all part of humankind, why have our distinctive physical traits become so significant? Why do we treat people differently, based solely on the way they look?

Jax and Reddy are five year olds. Jax asked his mother to shave his head like his friend Reddy. That way he could trick their teacher because she would not be able to tell them apart.

Are You Face Biased? Take This Test!

This test will tell you if you are unconsciously biased when you look at faces of strangers. Read on…

Psychologist Alex Todorov has conducted research at Princeton University proving when we see a new face, our brains decide whether a person is attractive and trustworthy within a tenth of a second. Within a tenth of a second! In less than a second we decide if someone is beautiful or unattractive, if someone can be trusted, or if they look shady. We make important judgements on people before knowing their life journey, their worldview, or even their name.

Look at the people below.

How long did you look at the pictures? Perhaps just two and a half seconds (a tenth of a second for each face)? What judgements did you make in that time?

If you were standing in a room with this group of people, and you were told to “partner up” with someone, who would you seek out? Who would you avoid?

Would you feel uncomfortable if any of these people sat next to you in your place of worship? Or on an airplane? 

Celebrating Hometown Heroes

{Due to work obligations, I need to take a hiatus from my weekly Blog. I am retiring from my position of Elementary Principal, and I need the month of June to focus on ensuring my school is ready for my successor and the new school year.}

In the meantime, I would like to dedicate this space to three local heroes:

Rick Best

Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche

Micah David-Cole Fletcher

At 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 26, 2017, these three men were riding a light-rail train in Portland, Oregon. 

Climbing My Family Tree, Part 18

Immigrants Henry Baldwin, Sr, Ezekiel & Susanna Richardson

Last week we learned about immigrant John Taylor and his wife, Julia A. Dyer (my three times great-grandparents). Julia was born and grew up in New Sharon, Maine in the 1800s, but several of her ancestors sailed here from England in the 1600s.