Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette 

PILGRIM VILLAGE REPLICATES PLYMOUTH SETTLEMENT

  Located 45 miles south of Boston in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts

Plimouth Plantation, Inc. has created a living museum representing Plymouth settlement as it was in 1627. The year 1627 was chosen because it is a well  documented period and was just prior to the time when the colonists began to disperse beyond their first settlement. The park is open from April through November and part of December.

  The 1627 Village replicates the original Plymouth settlement which was located on Leyden Street in today's Downtown Plymouth. Each house in the Village contains painstakingly accurate reproductions of the furniture, tools and cooking equipment representative of the material possessions listed in Plymouth probate inventories.

  Most of the houses in the 1627 Village are located on both sides of the "Street" which rises from the Harbor in the east and runs westward to the combination fort and meeting house on the hill. Crossing near the center of the "Street" is the "Highway" which runs north and south  to the cornfields.

 In the 1627 Village the houses on the north side of the "Street" (from the east end) represent the homes of the Palmer (previously Soule), Annable, Fuller, Howland, Hopkins, Bradford, Alden, and Standish families.

 On the south side of the "Street" are storehouses, the common house and the homes of settlers Browne, Brewster, Billington, Allerton, Cooke and Winslow. It is known there were about 50 families in the actual Village in 1627 but the location of the homes of the remaining families is unknown.

  Dominating the hillside is a timber framed blockhouse used for a combination fort and meeting house. The ground floor consists of a room used for community and religious meetings while the upper floor is a gundeck used for a look-out deck and protection from attack by Indians or England's French or Spanish enemies attacking from the sea. A defensive palisade barrier of split or riven logs with bulwarks and corner gates surrounds the entire village.

  Clothed in period fashions and speaking in the first person with accents of their character's place of origin, museum staff "interpreters" take on the identities of the original inhabitants of the colony. The women feed and care for their household while the men farm, build and repair fences and conduct other jobs and chores necessary to maintain their home and village.

MAYFLOWER WEBSITE INFORMATIVE

 Caleb Johnson, a descendant of several Mayflower passengers, has created a wonderful website with informative articles and links concerning the Pilgrim's ship, the Mayflower. The website is well worth a visit. It is located at http://members.aol.com/calebj/mayflower.html .

 Born in Portland, Oregon and currently a resident of Vancouver, Washington, Johnson has a Texas connection. He graduated from Texas Tech University in Lubbock with degrees in history, English and archeology. His Mayflower ancestors were John Alden, his wife, Priscilla Mullins and her parents William and Alice Mullins. He is also descended from Myles Standish, Henry Samson, Edward Doty, George Soule and Richard Warren.

ARCHIVES AND LIBRARY CLOSINGS

 The State Historical Society of Wisconsin's Archives Reading Room, Visual Materials Archive Viewing Room, and Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research will be closed for remodeling during all of January 2001. Services will resume in a new Archives Reference Room on 1 February 2001.

 During January, Archives staff will continue to respond to written
reference questions regarding the holdings mentioned above. Mail may be sent to: Archives Reference, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 and by e-mail at archref@mail.shsw.wisc.edu.

 The Historical Society's library will not be affected by remodeling and will be open to the public as usual during January. For more information visit http://www.whsw.wisc.edu/archives/closure.html

 The State Library of Ohio will be moving from its current location at
65 South Front Street to 274 East 1st Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43201. It will be closed from December 1, 2000 to January 29, 2001 during the move.
 For the most up-to-date State Library move information, visit  the Ohio State Library's web site at:  http://winslo.state.oh.us

CD NEWS

  The Genealogical Publishing Company and Broderbund have produced a CD-Rom that will be of interest to Mayflower and New England researchers. Genealogical Records: Pilgrim Genealogies and Histories, 1600s-1900s is a collection of seventeen books previously published by GPC about the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. It is available for $39.99, plus $3.50 postage from Genealogical Publishing Co., 1001 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202

  The 17 books included on the CD-Rom contain a wide variety of information on the Pilgrims and their lives in the New World. Within the lineages, family histories, vital records and historical essays one will find information on more than 248,000 individuals. Included will be names and descriptions of family members; details of their voyage to the New World;occupation; church affiliation; dates of vital events; parish of origin; general characteristics; details of personal inventory; and memoirs of life in the colonies.