First California Company, Jamestowne Society

We Visit The National Archives; Our National Genealogical Resource

2012-01-27T19:07:00.000-08:00

NARA Riverside Entrance

First California Company hosted a January 7, 2011 visit of about 50 of our members and DeAnza Chapter of DAR to the Riverside Branch of the National Archives at Perris, which serves Southern California, Arizona and Clark County. Nevada.

After a short business meeting and announcements of our next two meetings (see the Next Meetings side bar) Kerry Bartels, Archives Specialist and lifelong genealogist, explained the history, purpose, relevance and resources of the National Archives for researching ancestors. He followed his presentation with a tour of the facility.

The National Archives and Records Administration (the “National Archives” and “NARA”) holds over 10 billion paper documents, many of which are rich in genealogical value but are little known and little used by genealogists. They are complemented by millions of electronic and other media and records, such as photos, maps, charts, architectural drawings, etc.

NARA was established in 1934 to preserve, protect and make available to the public our government’s valuable records. Its Washington, DC headquarters houses the central government’s records from its inception up to 1900, and a newer facility in College Park, MD holds those from post-1900 and specialty departments.

NARA also has facilities in branches in its twelve regions that offer access to those archives, but also hold official papers from their particular geographical areas. For example, the Pacific Regional Archives has two branches. The Riverside Branch, where we met, is the repository for southern California, Arizona and Clark County, Nevada. The San Francisco National Archives Branch is in San Bruno, California. Its holdings are from northern California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada (except Clark County), American Samoa, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

However, it should be noted that, with respect to our own Jamestown genealogical needs, most of NARA’s archival collection dates from 1787 and the founding of the country, with relatively few colonial-era records. Those are mainly found in state and local archives.

Principally, what NARA can provide includes:

Census records from 1790 through 1930 (the 1940 records will become available on April 2, 2012 and the 1890 census records were significantly damaged by fire)
Immigration and naturalization records
Military Service Records (MCR) (80% of WWII Army records were also significantly damaged by a 1973 fire)
Civilian Personnel Records (CPR) from 1912 onwards, plus other sources prior to 1912
Railroad Retirement Board pension records
Ships’ passenger arrival lists
Land records

Mr. Bartels observed that over 80% of NARA’s documents and records have not been digitized and are thus unavailable through its online links, but can be accessed by in-person research and direct e-mail contact with its staff both locally and in Washington. He can assist and be reached at kerry.bartels@nara.gov.

The key to using these records is that they can be located in NARA’s Archival Research Catalog (“ARC”) at http://search.archives.gov/query.html?qt=ARC&submit=GO&col=1arch&col=social&qc=1arch&qc=social. Look for the “How to Search in ARC” link on that page.

However, Bartels cautioned that the digital utility of the archives is complex and difficult to navigate. The place to start is http://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/start-research/.

Local online research tools can be found at http://www.archives.gov/pacific/archives/riverside/genealogy.html.

NARA also is leveraging its capacity to digitize its records in partnership with
Ancestry.com (for general databases) and fold3.com (for military databases).

Governor Ginny Gotlieb presented Mr. Bartels with a certificate of our appreciation.

The Pacific Regional Archives were formerly at Laguna Niguel, CA, and moved to its current regional facility in Perris in 2010. This location will better preserve records for coming generations at more affordable cost to the government and taxpayers. All holdings are open for on-site research at its new research room and all normal services are available to the public. The address of the new location is:

22123 Cajalco Road,
Perris, CA 92570
Phone: (951) 956-2000
Email: riverside.archives@nara.gov

The address of the San Bruno facility is:

The National Archives at San Francisco
Leo J. Ryan Federal Building
1000 Commodore Drive
San Bruno, CA 94066-2350
Phone: 650-238-3501
E-mail: sanbruno.archives@nara.gov

Thanks to Charlotte Gresham for her photos.

Our Next Meeting: January 7 –The National Archives at Riverside

2011-11-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

The National Archives are important to anyone doing genealogical research. We will offer a workshop and tour on Saturday, January 7 at 11:30 am, following our business meeting there at 11:00 am. The National Archives at Riverside is impressive in the size and scope of records held right there. This behind-the- scenes tour is not generally open to the public. (Directions and more information below.)

This event is free. Because space is limited to 50, it is essential to make your reservations at FCCJamestowneGov@gmail.com. This is an especially good meeting to bring guests, perhaps members of other lineage groups our members affiliate with. It should be very interesting. Our speaker is informative, personable and engaging, as several of us have experienced.

Our Program

Kerry Bartels, the Archives Specialist, will present a talk, Introduction to the National Archives, followed by a “Stump the Archivist” question and answer period. Bring your toughest research dilemmas! Mr. Bartels’ program describes the different repositories of the National Archives and the huge volume of records held here, in DC, and elsewhere. He will discuss the two digitization partners of the National Archives, Ancestry.com and Footnote.com, and their current activities. Mr. Bartels then will cover four of the five major categories of records in the National Archives that are most commonly used by genealogists and will go into detail with one of these categories, military records. This will be followed by some examples of records in the National Archives that are rich in genealogical value, but are little known and little used by genealogists.

Facilities and Research
Our meeting room will have individual tables so members can take notes during Mr. Bartels’ talk. You can return to this room later for personal research. Bartels is very willing to take individual questions and often can guide a researcher to material on site, which may open a genealogical line where one has been stuck. Bartels is also a former manuscript curator so he can help interpret documents as well as find them. The National Archives collection officially begins with the date of the Constitution, 1789. They do have a few colonial records. The Archives are open from 8 am - 4:30pm so members can get some work done before or after our session.

About Kerry Bartels

Kerry Bartels is an Archives Specialist at The National Archives at Riverside in southern California. He has long experience as an archivist and genealogist. He has been a professional archivist since 1977 and has worked in historical societies, libraries, museums, universities, state Archives, and now at the National Archives. He has extensive experience with county, state, and Federal records as well as private manuscripts of individuals and records of private organizations. Over the years, he has also done a great deal of oral history and has administered a state micrographics laboratory and a state conservation laboratory among other specialties. He has been a genealogical practitioner since 1962 and has done extensive research in the United States and Canada as well as many nations in Europe.

Location and Directions

The National Archives repository is actually located at 23123 Cajalco Road, Perris, CA, near Interstate 215. We also offer a map of the location by clicking here.

To find the site from the north or south off Interstate 215, exit at Harville Road and turn left. Go approximately 300 yards. Turn right on Cajalco Road and go about 300 yards to a dead end, where you will see the National Archives sign. Turn in to the Archives driveway that ends at a guard gatehouse. Push the intercom button and announce that you are there to attend the Jamestowne Society, First California Company event. You will be buzzed in to the facility.

If you get lost, please try (951) 956-2000.

Note: The Regional Archives (formerly at Laguna Niguel) moved to this new facility in early 2010.

Please also note that no meal will be available at the National Archives. You must bring your own lunch and can use the facility's lunchroom, or go out to nearby Perris restaurants.

Update: Jordan’s Point: Martha McCartney’s New Book

2011-11-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

The University of VirginiaPress is distributing a new book by Martha W. McCartney (who spoke to us onOctober 23. 2010): Jordan’s Point, Virginia; Archaeology in Perspective,Prehistoric to Modern Times. Anyof our members who had ancestors living at Jordan's Point during the 1620's as well as Bland descendants should have a keen interest in it.

The distributor tells us: “Jordan’sPoint, a nearly triangular promontory in the James River, is situated in PrinceGeorge County, just east of the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers.In 1607, when the first European colonists saw it, the area was home to nativesthey would call the Weyanoke."

The author tells us: "...emphasis is placed on that area's early 17th century occupants...Also, many of the original Berkeley Hundred settlers withdrew to Jordan's Journey after the 1622 Indian attack and stayed on. Extensive archaeological investigations were undertaken at Jordan's Point before a housing development was built there. Numerous early 17th century sites were fully excavated, so there are site plans showing the layout of the early house sites and numerous artifact photos. Also, a beautiful color rendering of Captain John Smith's map (I found it at Oxford) is splayed across two adjoining pages. So --- much emphasis on the early 17th!"

The distributor goes on to say: "By 1660, Jordan’s Point had come into thepossession of the Blands, one of England’s most important mercantile families;they gradually developed Jordan’s Point into a family seat and workingplantation, which they retained until after the Civil War. Featuring more thanone hundred photos and illustrations, most in color, and intended for a generalreader, this book tells the story that spans thousands of years, through thecultural features that archaeologists have unearthed at Jordan’s Point.”

McCartney is a former historian for theVirginia Research Center for Archaeology, and the author of six books,including Jamestown: An American Legacy. She joined us in October 2010 in Los Angeles,where she discussed another of her books, Virginia Immigrants andAdventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary (see our posts of October 27 and following.) She isreportedly close to publication of its companion, a biographical dictionary for1636-99.

You might consider this a Christmasgift to yourself; it’s that time again.

Distributed by The University of Virginia Press for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

You can order it from (click on for link):

Amazon (shows as a prepublication order). Barnes & Noble

Betty Thomson 1928-2011

2011-11-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

Bill and Betty Thomson at our fall 2010 meeting

As Governor Ginny Gotlieb reported at our 10/29 meeting, our long-time member and former Historian, Bill Thomson, lost his wife of 63 years Betty last July 16. Many of us remember her as a vivacious and sparkling guest at many of our meetings.

Betty like Bill, graduated from North Texas University, where she was an honors graduate in fine arts and later earned teaching credentials as well as a California realtor’s license. A member of Kappa Theta Pi sorority, she was a campus beauty, one of those chosen in 1947 to fly to Austin for the selection of a North Texas Beauty Queen by Gov. Beauford Jester.

In addition to Bill, She is survived by her children Carol Maloney and husband Mayer of Bloomington, IN, Mark Thomson and wife Kathy of Ventura, CA, Laurie Yourist and husband Sheldon of York, PA, and John Thomson and wife Tina of Pasadena. She was lovingly known as "Nanee" to her twelve grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

In addition to her family devotion, she participated in USC's Town and Gown, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and was a charter member of the Women of the Woods Club of her Chapman Woods neighborhood.

The French & Indian War: Prelude to Revolution

2011-11-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

Summary of First California Company Lecture October 29, 2011

By Diana Johnson

Background Information

George Washington grew up poor, but as a teenager he learned surveying, earning his wealth and respect by surveying Virginia’s Western Wilderness for homesteaders there.

By international treaty, France claimed all lands north of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River, while Great Britain claimed all lands south of that line. (No one asked the Indians what they thought.)

In the winter of 1753-54, Lt. Governor Dinwiddie assigned Washington to spy on the French who were beginning to lead Indians in Virginia’s Western Wilderness, torturing, scalping, and murdering Virginian settlers. At the French Fort Le Boeuf, just south of Lake Erie, Washington and his group discovered 200 French canoes plus material for more. When the French and Canadians returned from wintering in Montreal to Fort Le Boeuf, they would be able to send a force of 1,500 men or more, plus cannons, to erect several forts south along the Ohio River.

Upon hearing Washington’s report, Lt. Governor Dinwiddie called an emergency session of the House of Burgesses, urging the members to raise money to support the Virginia Militia in protecting their citizens against the French & Indians.

The French & Indian War Begins

Map of the area of conflict in the French and Indian War

In the early spring of 1754, 300 men of Virginia Regiment Militia, meet in Alexandria under Colonel Joshua Fry and Lt. Col. George Washington. Fry is the highest-ranking military leader in Virginia. Washington has been given the rank of lieutenant colonel by Dinwiddie in recognition of his services as spy the previous winter, and also because he knows not only the geography of the Western Wilderness, but also has a personal relationship with the English fur traders, and the loyal Indians in the area, especially Seneca Chief Monakaduto.

The regiment leaves immediately for Will’s Creek Station, where other colonies’ militias and two companies of the King’s British Regulars are expected soon.

Washington takes 150 men to an area farther west known as the Great Meadows, leaving Fry to continue drilling troops, and collecting others as they come. Great Meadows (which will become known in history as Fort Necessity) is an area large enough to serve as base camp for the large number of men expected to join the fight. Washington orders 47 men under Captain Trent to go to where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join to form the Ohio River. They are assigned to build a fort, denying the French access to the Ohio River.

Soon thereafter, Washington selects a group of 40 men to go with an Indian runner from Chief Monakaduto to fight a French contingent the Indians have discovered. The Chief and some braves lead them to an encampment of French soldiers. In the ensuing fight, 9 French are killed; 21 French soldiers surrender. The 21 prisoners’ wrists are bound and they are brought back to camp in Great Meadows. The rest of the troops and Colonel Fry are still not there.

Captain Trent and his 47 men, sent to build the fort, return defeated. They had too few men, insufficient supplies, and no training in military engineering. French soldiers, 500 strong with 18 cannon arrived, and told the militia, “Surrender or be blown to bits along with your piddling fort.”

In early June, Captain Mackay and the British Regulars arrive at Great Meadows, along with the North Carolina Militia. No other colonies had sent militia to join the fight. Equally stunning bad news was that Fry had died from injuries caused when he fell from his horse. The final blow is that Captain Mackay and his troops refuse to obey Lieutenant Colonel Washington because Governor Dinwiddie had assigned him his rank, and King George commissioned the regulars. They demand an extra shilling a day for each man who does any work.

Washington refuses their extortion and orders Mackay and his regulars to stay at Great Meadows with French prisoners. He takes the remaining 150 men to begin making a wagon road from Great Meadows to a log cabin and storage shed built by his friend, Gist, farther north on the way to the Ohio. Chopping trees, pulling stumps, shoving stones, his men become sick and exhausted. Nevertheless, they push on past Gist’s to the Ohio Company’s Redstone storehouse. Almost out of lead and powder, and with only a two-day supply of food left. Monakaduto’s scouts and some French deserters arrive, telling them strong reinforcements are marching from Fort Duquesne to attack them.

They return to Gist’s, and begin building an entrenchment around the two buildings there. Delaware Indians come to spy. Washington orders Mackay and his regulars to leave a small garrison at Great Meadows to guard the French prisoners, the rest to come to Gist’s. Mackay and his men arrive about two weeks later. Mackay says, “Washington is insane, trying to make a stand at Gist’s with only two small buildings.”

Washington decides to go back to Great Meadows, calling it “Fort Necessity.” Here, Washington receives a dispatch from Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie, who, upon Fry’s death, promoted him to full colonel. Captain Mackay and his regulars still refuse to help. Monakaduto warns Washington not to fight from the log enclosure in the meadow, but to make his stand on the hilltop. Washington ignores his advice causing Monakaduto to say, “The French behave like cowards, and the English like fools.” He and his braves leave.

Negotiations after the defeat at Fort Necessity lead to exchanging the 21 French prisoners for Washington’s troops guaranteed freedom to leave, unmolested with whatever they can carry.

Year Two 1754-55

Over the winter the Virginians build Fort Cumberland at the head of Will’s Creek. That June, General Braddock and 2200 men arrive and with Washington and the Virginia Militia, leave Fort Cumberland into the Allegheny Mountains on their way to French Fort Duquesne at the head of the Ohio River. Braddock derides the militia and completely dismisses their loyal Indians.

At the Battle of Monongahela, fought 7 miles south of Fort Duquesne, the British regulars go into block formation. The militia moves to fight from behind trees and rocks, as the French and Indians are doing. The British call the militia “cowards.” When the British realize the militia aims at individual men they call them “murderers.” The overwhelming defeat leaves English dead piled two and three deep. The surviving militia troops lose all baggage, weapons, horses & wagons.

It is my thesis that the militia troops became disillusioned with the continual treatment of disrespect from the English regulars. As a result, militia bravery and determination to fight to protect their homes and country from attack by a foreign enemy, became a precursor to the American Revolution by disassociating them from loyalty to King George, his troops, and England.

Diana M. Johnson is a member of First California Company, which she served as Secretary and Newsletter Editor. She is a Life Member of the California Writers Club and has written five adult historical novels, as well as one for youth, all based on members of her family tree. Her most recent novel is Wagons to Hangtown, the story of her great, great grandfather’s journey to California during the Gold Rush. Diana was graduated from UCLA and earned her master’s degree from California State University, Northridge. She taught in the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills Unified School districts. She also lectures on Jamestown and other topics. Her website is http://www.superiorbookpublishingco.com/SuperiorBookPublishingCo.com/Home_Page.html. You can also contact her at: billndi@verizon.net

Recommended Reading: Wilderness Empire by Allan W. Eckert

Corollary Reading: Cradle of a Nation by Diana M. Johnson Website: www.SuperiorBookPublishingCo.com

Editor’s Note: For other reading, see:

The War That Made America – A Short History of the French and Indian War by Fred Anderson. (New York Viking. 2005) and its digital companion, the 2006 PBS two part series that is available at http://www.wqed.org/tv/specials/the-war-that-made-america/

POCAHONTAS and RELATED FAMILY

2011-11-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

By Scarlett Gathings Stahl

(Editor's note: On August 10, 2010, we posted Mary Weisiger Andeen's account of her family’s Pocahontas Cameo Brooch. Scarlett Gathings Stahl, another Pocahontas descendant, here recounts how she discovered and has celebrated her heritage. We welcome your accounts of discovering your Jamestown ancestors.)

My mother’s father had died when she was young and she grew up with her mother and two siblings in her paternal grandparent’s home. Her grandfather, Christopher Bland Proctor Sr. had been born in Petersburg, Virginia in 1865. He had told her a great deal of the family history, including that they were cousins to Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee and John Marshall of the Supreme Court as they were all descended from the Randolphs of Virginia. But more importantly, he told her that they were direct descendants of Pocahontas. Now that is something I have known all my life, but only a few years ago did I become interested in proving my heritage. An Irish friend of mine had asked "How are you related to all this American Royalty and that started my search?"

I began my odyssey with the Daughters of the American Revolution, which I now belong to and found that it really was easy for me in my search for proof. I had my birth certificate and my mother's death certificate. I found the death notice on the computer for my grandfather and was able to obtain my great grandfathers death certificate from the Tennessee Dept of Records. All of these documents listed the names of their parents. My great grandfather’s mother was Rachel Magdalene Bland (Proctor was her married name). And the Library of Virginia had a complete set of documents on the Bland family, which went back to Richard Bland I.

Richard Bland I married Elizabeth Randolph (daughter of William Randolph and Mary Isham of Turkey Island)

Richard Bland II married Ann Poythress

Richard Bland III married Mary Bolling (great great great granddaughter of Pocahontas and John Rolfe)

Richard Bland IV married Susannah Poythress

John Bolling Bland

Rachel Magdalene Bland married James Drury Proctor of the Prince George Cavalry in the Civil War

Christopher Bland Proctor Sr

Christopher Bland Proctor Jr

Ethel Norton Proctor (Gathings)

Scarlett Gathings (Stahl)

And after I joined the DAR, I became close friends with Sandy Krutilek, who is a distant cousin through the Poythress family!!!! Sandy suggested I join Jamestowne Society as both she and her husband, Scott, belong as well. And the book "Adventurers of Purse and Person", luckily had the Bland family listed as well as the Bolling family so that made it even easier for me for me to join Jamestowne Society. Since I had proven my lineage thru Richard Bland I and Elizabeth Randolph, it was easy to prove that her father was William Randolph and that he owned land for me to join Colonial Dames of the XVII Century. So in two years I joined DAR, Jamestowne Society Colonial Dames of the XVII Century and UDC as well as proved a separate ancestor for my daughter to join DAR. After five forms completed, I am researched out!!

Scarlett with Pocahontas bust

at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond

This past May I went on a family pilgrimage to Virginia for a week and loved every minute of it. I had made arrangements ahead of time so that I had access all the places that I wanted to visit. The curator, E. Lee Shepherd, at the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond had taken my family portraits out for me to view and photograph in their Archives and also took me on a tour of the Museum. The owner of private property, where the Randolph family grave site is twenty miles south of Richmond, drove down to let me visit. He told me that is the oldest family grave site in the United States and is maintained by the Henrico Historical Society. Additionally he told me that the Randolph home no longer exists as it was sold to General Pickett of the Confederate Army and that the Yankees gunboats sat in the James River and fired cannon balls into the house until it caught fire and imploded like the World Trade Center. My response was that Al Quaida had nothing on the damn Yankees.

The Bolling family mausoleum at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia

Next were Williamsburg and a visit to another Randolph family home, Peyton Randolph, first president of the Continental Congress and then down to Jamestowne with the museum there in a search for Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Lastly was a visit to Petersburg and nearby family related areas where a gracious lady, Jacqueline Hudson, who is the registrar of the Frances Bland Randolph Chapter of the DAR in Petersburg, was my guide to Jordan’s Point where the Bland family grave site is and to Blandford Cemetery to visit the Bolling mausoleum, and other sites. I was her guest at the DAR meeting and told the ladies that I would like to become an associate of their chapter as my family was from the area. When I mentioned the family names were Rolfe, Bolling, Bland, Randolph, Poythress and Proctor, one lady exclaimed that I was related to most of the ladies there. Then I told them that is why I want to become an associate member, that I want to learn more about my roots and meet my cousins. One lady told me that she is a white Pocahontas descendant and shared with me the story of the Red, White and Blue Pocahontas descendants. She said she is a white as she is a wanna be. She is descended from John Rolfe but not Pocahontas, I am a red as I am a real Pocahontas descendant being descended from Pocahontas and John Rolfe. The blues are bogus as they have no claim of descent.

I had a wonderful time and intend to return to Virginia for more pilgrimages. In fact I already have planned a visit to Monticello in December as it should look lovely decorated for Christmas and as I said, Thomas Jefferson is another Randolph cousin.

Our New Brochure…

2011-10-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

As Governor Ginny Gotlieb announced at our June annual meeting, we have updated and revised our First California Company brochure. It includes new illustrations and emphasizes the help we can give prospective members with their applications.

This new brochure introduces the Jamestowne Society and us and will be distributed at genealogy fairs and other functions. We have also made it available at genealogical libraries, such as the Cole research library in Carlsbad in North San Diego County.

We will have a supply of these at the October 29 meeting, and also have a supply in San Diego, which you ask about by contacting FCCjamestowne@gmail.com, where you also can request a sample.

Reminder: Our Fall Meeting will be Saturday, October 29

2011-09-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

The Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge, CA will be the site of our Fall Meeting and Luncheon on Saturday October 29, 2011, from 12 noon until 2:30 PM.

Our own First California Company member Diana Johnson (and former Secretary and Newsletter Editor) will tell us about

“The French and Indian War: Prelude to Revolution”

She will address this pivotal moment in the transformation of Virginians as they became aware of how their social and cultural identity and economic interests had grown to differ from the mother country. Diana is the author of six books, and you can learn more about her at her web site.

Luncheon: $35, payable to First California Company by October 20, 2011.

If you have not yet paid 2011-2012 annual dues, they are $30 for Members.

Please send luncheon check and/or dues renewal to:

Harry Holgate

Treasurer

115 West Fourth St., #208

Long Beach, California 90802-2312

Surrounded by the green rolling hills of the Santa Susana Mountains, the Porter Valley Country Club is in the north end of the San Fernando Valley, just off the 118 (Ronald Reagan) freeway and about five miles west of I-405 (the San Diego freeway). Its address is 19216 Singing Hills Drive, Northridge, Los Angeles, CA 91326.

The Governor’s Roundtable Report

2011-09-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

By Ginny Gotlieb

Photo courtesy of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

First California Company Governor Ginny Gotlieb joined the governors of other Jamestowne Society companies to exchange information and discuss Jamestowne companies’ activities around the country at a meeting in Williamsburg May 13. Jamestowne Society Governor Joe Barlow presided.

Reports included these positive developments:

· The Jamestowne Society’s Wingo Fund supports the preservation of Virginia records. The marriage books of Albemarle County for 1811-1830 have now been restored. The project will continue restoration through the 1853 book. The First California Company at its annual meeting voted to donate $500 to the Wingo Fund.

· The mortgage on the national headquarters building was retired at the end of 2010. The First California Company and others contributed to a matching grant challenge that made this possible.

· The excellent Jamestowne Society website (www.jamestowne.org) now has a “What’s New” section. Items are posted frequently. Check it often for news and meeting information. If you are traveling, you may wish to attend another company’s meeting.

· The newly republished Adventurers of Purse and Person, Vol. 1 now includes women who were previously undocumented and new information on persons not residing in Jamestowne but recorded in the 1624/25 muster. This three-volume compendium is a key resource for researching lineage and is available through the online Jamestowne Society Shoppe. Also available there is the Society’s Register of Qualifying Ancestors, reprinted to include ancestors approved since 2007. The Register’s most current version is online at the Society’s website. Approved Jamestowne Society applications #4040 and above may be referenced in documenting lineage. One’s personal line must still be documented. The First California Company recently purchased the Adventurers of Purse and Person set for use by our Membership Chair.

· The Jamestowne Society will continue to mail the printed newsletter to all members twice a year.

· Growth in membership is encouraged through increasing public awareness and networking with other organizations with members from the Revolutionary War period or earlier.

Your governor’s report noted our active outreach through attendance at several genealogical fairs each year and placement of our newly reprinted brochures in libraries; the online newsletter/blog created last summer; and our excellent programs.

Billy Pittard Joins Faculty at Middle Tennesee State University

2011-09-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

First California Company member Billy Pittard has been named the new Chairman of the Department of Electronic Media Communication at Middle Tennessee State University. He previously served on the Board of Professional Advisors. Pittard and his family moved back to his hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee in August. Pittards were among the earliest settlers here. MTSU, the oldest and largest public university in the state, will welcome over 26,500 students this fall as it celebrates its 100^th anniversary.

The MTSU News press release quotes Dr. Roy L. Moore, dean of the College of Mass Communication: “The search committee, EMC faculty and I were highly impressed with Mr. Pittard’s credentials and his vision for moving the department to new heights of excellence and even greater prominence. We are all looking forward to working with him.”

Pittard responded, “I’m thrilled to be moving back to my hometown and joining MTSU’s faculty. It almost feels like I’ve been preparing for this opportunity for my entire career. I’m very excited about the prospects for taking the EMC department to the next level. Electronic media are no longer the exclusive domain of large media companies; these days, essentially every business is a publisher of electronic media, and the possibilities are almost endless.”That’s a very exciting proposition for our students, our University and our community, and that’s what the EMC department is all about.”

Pittard’s extensive resume includes 10 years in television news, more than 200 TV network brand identities around the world, 30 documentary films and interaction design and content for a wide range of media platforms, notes the press release. He also has won five national Emmys, among more than 900 industry awards, and received several patents on his work. A member of the college’s Board of Professional Advisors and part of its Wall of Fame, Pittard has been recognized as an MTSU Distinguished Alumnus for Professional Achievement.

He currently is president of Pittard Inc., a consultancy that develops innovative applications and production of digital media and helps companies with branding, marketing communications and media-product development. He also worked with Lynda.com for the last three years as programming adviser, executive producer for documentary films and vice president of content, was founder and president of Pittard Sullivan and served as manager of design for KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and art director for WNGE-TV/WKRN-TV in Nashville.

We were extraordinarily lucky to have had Billy Pittard contribute his professional expertise to the First California Company. Billy launched our excellent online newsletter/blog last summer. With articles posted nearly every month, it is the key source of information for Company activities and interesting Jamestowne information. He has also volunteered as staff at our Jamboree table. We send best wishes and appreciation for his dedicated contributions to the First California Company.

To learn more about Pittard’s work, visit his website at www.foryourinspiration.net

First California Company’s 2011 Annual Meeting

2011-09-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

First California Company members enjoyed the view from a deck and dining room of the San Diego Yacht Club at the June 18, 2011 annual meeting. A large Jamestowne Society banner and table flag, gifts from the national society, were displayed.

The Company brochure has been updated and reprinted. Our thanks to Cathie Matranga, Martha Gresham, and Jim McCall for their work on this project. If you would like copies to make available to other lineage organizations you are involved with or to place in a library, please contact Governor Ginny Gotlieb at fccjamestownegov@gmail.com.

Members voted to reprint the roster of our current members. Phyllis Kinzle, Harry Holgate, and Martha Murphy agreed to handle this project.

Other business items were minutes, budget approval, a report from the Governor’s Roundtable and the national spring luncheon and the decision to respond no to an inquiry from genealogist.com to link to them. Joanne Murphy offered a Jamestowne day at the Del Mar Race Track to members.

Governor Gotlieb announced with great regret that Billy Pittard must resign as Editor of our online newsletter/blog. (See the following post on Pittard’s appointment as chairman of Middle Tennessee State University’s Department of Electronic Media Communication.) Jim McCall has agreed to take over this job. The blog is a timely, lively way for members to stay current, share information, and to know each other. There is a comment link at the bottom of each post on the blog. All members are also encouraged to submit items of interest to fccjamestowne@gmail.com

Members of the First California Company board and those in appointed positions were thanked for their hard work this year. We have accomplished a lot! The Board term extends until June 2012. Please consider nominations (including yourself) for the next board and let Governor Gotlieb know of your interest. The current Board is as follows:

Governor Ginny Gotlieb

Lt. Governor                         Cathie Matranga

Secretary                               Linda Ramos

Treasurer                              Harry Holgate

Chaplain                                Pat Fleming

Membership                         Cathie Matranga

Councilors                            Joanne Murphy

Sandy Krutilek

Martha Gresham

                                                Barbara Skimina

Newsletter                            Jim McCall

Historian                              Tesa Gorszwick

Parliamentarian                 Martha Gresham

Invitations &                        Phyllis Kinzle           \
Data Base Manager

The luncheon program was a four hundred year history of the Pace family from their origins in England to contemporary California. Members Martha Gresham and Jim McCall prepared the program. (See the 8/29 blog post with information from this talk).

Speakers Martha Gresham and Jim McCall are presented certificates of appreciation by Governor Ginny Gotlieb.

Our Fall Meeting will be Saturday, October 29

2011-08-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

The Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge, CA will be the site of our Fall Meeting and Luncheon on Saturday October 29, 2011, from 12 noon until 2:30 PM.

Our own First California Company member Diana Johnson (and former Secretary and Newsletter Editor) will tell us about

“The French and Indian War: Prelude to Revolution”

Luncheon: $35, payable to First California Company by October 20, 2011

If you have not yet paid 2011-2012 annual dues, they are $30 for Members

Please send luncheon check and/or dues renewal to:

Harry Holgate

Treasurer

115 West Fourth St., #208

Long Beach, California 90802-2312

The Paces: Pioneers at Jamestown and Points West

2011-07-20T16:36:00.000-07:00

First California Company is encouraging our members to give presentations about their ancestors at our meetings. Jim McCall and Martha Pace Gresham, both descendants of Ancient Planters Richard and Isabella Pace, gave the first of these at our annual meeting on June 18. This is a two-part synopsis.

Part One: Seeking Early Opportunity in Jamestown

By James H. McCall

Note: It is difficult to document the Paces at Jamestown. Most of its early colonial records were lost in the fiery destruction of Richmond in 1865. However, we are indebted for what we do know about them to researcher Martha McCartney for combing local land records and resources, archeologist Nick Luccketti for locating and showing us where they lived and my son for his own research and pictures of St. Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, where they were married. We also used the sources and references listed below; many of the digital sources can be read by clicking on the hyperlinks in the text. You can also see more detail in the maps and illustrations by clicking on them. We also interpreted conjectures in several Pace-related genealogical books and web sites for our own suppositions.

The attraction of Jamestown was opportunity. Among the earliest families to settle was that of Richard and Isabella Pace and their young son, George. Both were investors in the Virginia Company of London and among the recipients of the first headrights or land grants. They exemplified the middle class English entrepreneurial immigrants who sought economic opportunity and were the backbone of Jamestown’s establishment. The Paces also played a key role in Jamestown’s survival.

Ordinary life in England was very difficult in the late 16^th and most of the 17^th centuries. The English economy was depressed and the population doubled from 2.3 to 4.8 million between 1520 and 1630; London grew from 90,000 to almost 200,000. Desperate societal conditions drove some in the middle class to seek relief from economic deprivations, urban distress and religious turmoil – the motivations for taking the extraordinary risks in colonizing Virginia.

London in Richard Pace's time

The London suburbs east of the Tower of London is where we first find Richard Pace. He was probably born between 1580 and 1583 and lived in Wapping, or Wapping Wall, a major port and ship construction area. He was a carpenter and may have done well enough (and had the connections) to afford investing in the Virginia Company of London. One source suggests that his wife, Isabella Smythe Pace, may have been born in Westminster between 1587 and 1589. Her father may possibly have had some means, as she later demonstrated financial acumen and knew the values of money and property. They were married on October 5, 1608 at the ancient church of St. Dunstan’s, Stepney (now St. Dunstan and All Saints.)

St. Dunstan and All Saints

Both of the Paces were investors in Virginia Company of London. It was highly unusual for a woman like Isabella to have been an investor in her own right, and it could indicate that she had business aptitude and connections. We’re also uncertain when their son George was born.

Richard’s carpenter’s skills were needed in Virginia and the family came before 1616. One source suggests that their relationships with fellow colonists William Perry and William Powell may have brought all of them together in 1611. Jamestown’s 1612 population was 300, equivalent to the population of less than one of our suburban blocks today.

The Pace family lived under the “Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, etc .” until 1618, when the Virginia Company drafted a new legal code based on English common law to replace “the semi-military dictatorship” that had been in place since 1610. In 1616, the Virginia Company of London made land grants fifty acres to each of its investors (including both Paces) in lieu of a dividend that it was unable to pay from profits. A year later, to spur colonial immigration and agriculture, they began granting another fifty acres to Ancient Planters, those settlers – such as both Paces – who had arrived before 1616, paid their own passage and remained for three years. These were the New World’s first land patents owned by common citizens, instead of by the monarchy, aristocracy or Church, as had been the time immemorial practice in Europe and England. The colonists and investors then began trading and selling their properties, as land was the only form of savings and there were no colonial banks.

Young women arriving in Jamestown

Few other women were in Jamestown until 1619-20, when the Company began sending the first groups of marriageable women to help stabilize and establish the colony. The Paces reportedly invested in ships and the immigration of women in 1619-21.

The Paces likely initially lived at Jamestown. Records indicate that Richard Pace had, for a time, served as the overseer of Captain William Powell’s plantation on the lower side of the James River, but had left that post in order to seat his own land. Virginia land records also reveal that Pace also had a financial interest in a plantation that Captain William Powell intended to establish on the Chickahominy River.

James River at Jamestown; Chickahominy at upper left

Jamestown’s population had grown to 900 by 1620. Richard and Isabella finally had their grants confirmed on December 5, 1620. Isabella received hers in an era when women did not usually own land. The explanation may be found in one of the petitions of the First Assembly in 1619, where “It is prayed that it be plainly expressed” that there be shares for wives “because that in a new plantation it is not known whether man or woman be the most necessary.” Richard also took advantage of the new “headright” system, and was granted 50 acres for each of six persons he brought over in August 1621, giving him an extra 300 acres.

Location of Pace's Paines in Surry

Richard and several of his friends formed Pace’s Paines as a sub-colony, which was situated across the river from Jamestown on a high bluff above the colony’s unhealthy swamps. “Paines” is thought to be an old English term for acres or fields. Richard Pace was the Commander and William Perry was the military Captain. As his and Isabella's holdings consisted of 600 acres, he was considered the largest landholder and his name was used to identify the group.

Nick Luccketti, formerly a Jamestown Rediscovery archeologist and now a principal in the James River Institute of Archeology, discovered main site of Paces Paines on what is now the 300-acre Mt. Pleasant Plantation, still directly across the river from Jamestown.

Pace's Paines was located in the field to the right center

Pace’s Paines was probably a palisaded settlement with one-story buildings of split logs made into clapboards. The early settlers used this method; clapboard was one of the first commodities sent back to England by the planters. The settlement’s lands were cleared and planted in tobacco.

Over 15,000 Indians are estimated to have been living around Jamestown about 1607, which was likely about the same in 1622.

Powhatan settlements in 1607

The 1622 Population in the English settlements was estimated at 1,300.

English settlements in 1622;
Pace's Paines is opposite Jamestown, to the left
of where Gray's creek empties into the James.

On March 22, 1621/22, Powhatans and their allies mounted a well-planned and coordinated surprise attack throughout the colony to drive the English from their ancestral homelands. This shattered the tenuous eight-year peace from the Rolfe/Pocahontas marriage. Contrary to a perpetuated myth, it was not Good Friday, which fell on April 19 that year.

Early that morning, an Indian boy, Chanco, William Perry’s servant, was living in the Pace household. He warned Pace of the impending attack, and the family and Chanco very likely went to the beach where Gray’s Creek empties into the James and rowed a small boat over two miles to Jamestown to warn its residents.

Plaque memorializing Chanco at Jamestown church

Over a score of outlying plantations were decimated, but Chanco’s warnings helped to spare Jamestown itself. Over a quarter of the settlers were killed, of whom many were mutilated. It is likely that more lost their lives and others (mainly women) were taken captive. Almost all the settlements’ farm animals were also killed.

Contemporary depiction of 1622 attack

Following the attack, a census called “List of the Living” was taken, dated Feb. 16, 1623. While Richard and Isabella were not listed, there is an entry reading: “Richard Pearse and uxer (wife)” who were then living “at the Neck of Land” near Jamestown, so it is possible that this Richard Pearse was Richard Pace. Also, Richard's friend, Thomas Gates was living there with his family. Richard and Isabella's son, George, was also omitted from the “List of the Living.” He would have been about 13 years old at the time.

The Pace family was also not found in 1624 muster. Pace apparently died sometime after January 1623 but before February 16, 1624 He would have been in his early forties and Isabella and George survived him. By February 16, 1624, the widowed Isabella Smyth Pace had married his good friend and neighbor, ancient planter William Perry, and once again was living in Jamestown. Afterwards, a record of May 9, 1625, shows that Isabella, now known as Mistress Perry, testified at a witchcraft trial. Captain William Perry died in 1637 and there is no further record of Isabella after that, but some speculation that she married again before she is believed to have died before 1645, when she would have been in her mid to late fifties.

George Pace is absent from the records until September 1628, when he received the patent for 400 acres at Pace’s Paines as his father’s primary heir, which was adjacent to his mother’s land that she acquired as an Ancient Planter and more that she had bought. By 1635, they had apparently traded or sold Pace’s Paines to William Swann and, with his stepfather, moved to Charles City. George later went on to become a successful planter.

Jamestown’s population in 1625 was about 1,300. The effect of the Indian assault on the colony was not unlike that of terrorists’ plane crashes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon almost four centuries later. The news of this catastrophe was one of the final blows for its private backers. New settlers who had arrived from London in spring 1623 introduced a virulent epidemic that killed more colonists than the Powhatan raids, which also helped to precipitate the Company’s demise.

There was a realization that less than one of six had survived of about 7,000 of those who had emigrated to establish Virginia. A royal inquiry led to the revocation of the Company’s charter and its dissolution in 1624. The Company’s investors (including the Paces) were wiped out with a loss estimated at over £200,000 (as valued at the time, or the 2010 equivalent of over $46,000,000.)

Part Two: On From Jamestown

By Martha Pace Gresham

We must talk of Isabella Smyth Pace. She and Richard were investors in the Virginia Company and therefore may have been financially better off that most. She appears to have been an intelligent, tough-mined woman who evidently understood business. Isabella saw the bigger picture and was able to take advantage of the opportunities offered in their rugged new world. Remember that our ancestors were not accustomed to the high standard of living that we enjoy today. There were no super-markets and food was always scarce, no drugstores, clothes were made at home, usually from cloth woven at home.

Isabella had received her own head-right land of 100 acres and claimed it in Surry County next to Richard’s acreage. She also received, at one time, 300 acres on Jamestown Island, which she had to cultivate or lose. Some sources indicate that she acquired some of her land by head rights from her investment in the ships that brought women of high character to the colony as prospective wives.

Isabella was widowed in her mid-thirties and quickly remarried her husband’s good friend and neighbor, William Perry. Their remarriage was necessary, as in all frontier communities, for the shelter and protection of the women and children. With this marriage, she still maintained as separate property the Richard Pace family’s holdings for her son, George, until he reached his maturity. (This was unusual at that time as the wife’s property always went to the husband.)

The Perrys also had a son, Henry, so George Pace had a half-brother. Later, after William Perry died, Isabella married George Menifie, who was the wealthiest man in the colony. He was an attorney who trafficked in land, tobacco and laborers and also a member of the Council. Isabella’s second son, Henry Perry, eventually married George Menife’s daughter and also was a member of the Council.

Isabella and her son George made several land trades in Surry County and they eventually traded that property away. George married Sara Maycock, the only heir of the minister, Samuel Maycock who was killed in the March 1622 Indian uprising.

With the marriage came 1,700 acres that Sara had inherited from her father. George and Sara continued to live in Virginia, reared 4 children, Richard II, John, Elizabeth and Thomas. Richard II married Mary Knowles in 1661 and had 8 children. Jim McCall and I are both descended from this couple; Jim from their youngest son Richard III, who married Rebecca Poythress, and I am descended from an older son John, who married Elizabeth Lowe.

Housing was minimal, even for those who were wealthy enough to invest in the Virginia Company. At first, the immigrants lived in small huts at the Fort, and then built houses with one room where the family lived, ate and slept. If a second room was added it was usually a kitchen, but more often these additional rooms were separate structures, such as a kitchen away from the house in case of fire, separate places for indentured servants, store rooms, barns, weaving rooms, chicken houses, etc. Thus, a homestead was often referred to as “a village.”

Once the settlers started raising tobacco, their homes were temporary shelters for the family, and not expected to last more than 4 to 7 years. Every few years the tobacco land would wear out; the house would be torn down, the wood burnt – it was free and plentiful – and the nails carefully saved. The families moved on up the river to new land. England did not allow industry in its colonies and nails had to be imported; they were thus expensive. Also, since tobacco was king, if there were any carpenters in the colony, they were not building houses for others; they were planting tobacco for themselves.

The framing of an early seventieth century story-and-a-half single bay house and a similar dwelling (inset). Conjectural drawing by H. Warren Billings.

The house shown in the picture has a fireplace but many houses were built English style with a fire in the middle of the floor and the smoke escaping through a vent under the eaves.

As life got easier, the population increased with the constant influx of new settlers and available land was being filled. By 1700, tobacco was no longer king and there was an over supply. The number of poor increased, the younger Pace sons moved on, north into Pennsylvania, west into the Virginia hinterlands and south into North Carolina. The 4^th generation Pace descendents had moved into North Carolina’s Bertie and Cowen Counties and a son, William, was in North Hampton Co. during the Revolution.

1751 map of Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey and North Carolina; drawn by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson

At this time the few main roads that were maintained ran North and South. They were initially only horse paths for the mail, i.e., the post road along the coast (which much of route Interstate 95 from Florida to Boston now follows). East-west roads, if any, were wagon trails. The western mountain ranges such as the Blue Ridge and Appalachians were also formidable barriers.

There is a line of waterfalls on every river that flows into the Atlantic Ocean along the east coast of the United States. This line extends for 900 miles from Pennsylvania to Georgia and marks the end of navigation upstream. The Fall Line also divides the area into two separate geological entities.

Farmers to the west of these falls found it impossible to easily get their produce to market via boat. (After the American Revolution, industry was located on the Fall Line to take advantage of the waterpower.) Between 1735 and 1750, a Fall Line Road was built from Fredericksburg, Virginia to Augusta, Georgia.

As the Paces and others pushed further inland, this Fall Line necessitated a new approach to farming. Brothers William and James Pace established numerous farms in North Carolina and continued to actively acquire and trade land. They raised wheat and oats for livestock, cattle and horses. It was too costly to move tobacco west beyond the Fall Line, but they could drive cattle and horses to market on their own four legs; thus, we had the early cattle drives out of the west.

Daniel Boone's Wilderness Trail

At this time, the Transylvania Company owned The Transylvania Purchase in Tennessee and wanted to open it for settlement. Daniel Boone was hired in 1775 to blaze a trail across the mountains from Virginia into the Tennessee territory. Boone assembled 30 axmen to blaze the trail following the Great Warriors Path from the Holston Valley through Southwest Virginia then across the Cumberland Gap and into Tennessee. Thus, he opened his famous Wilderness Trail.

After the Revolution, as in all wars, there was a lot of relocation. In 1790, members of the next generation, William Pace and his wife, Ruth Lambert, moved to Clarke County, Georgia, which was the fourth state to ratify the Constitution in 1788. There must have been something special about Georgia because Jim McCall’s branch of the family later also moved to the Carolinas and Georgia during the same period.

William and Ruth’s family consisted of 8 sons and 2 daughters. Two or three of the older sons moved on to Tennessee, which had become a state in June 1796. After a few years, these sons returned to Georgia to encourage the rest of the family to join them. The father and a number of the children returned to Tennessee. Nothing is mentioned in the records about the mother, Ruth Lambert, so we can assume that she had died. In fact she so rarely appeared in the records that it greatly frustrated later family genealogists. Eventually all of William’s children settled in Tennessee.

Moves like this were not easy. They took a lot of planning and good timing. Families would move with all their household possessions, necessities for the trip and supplies to see them through the winter in case they arrived too late for the planting season. Extended families and friends or neighbors would move together for strength and safety. Often there were 60 or 70 pack-horses plus cattle and goats, dogs, chickens, etc., in the train.

By the War of 1812, my ancestors in this Pace line had settled in Rutherford County, Tennessee and were friends and neighbors of Andrew and Rachael Jackson. In September 1813, the Spanish in Florida were stirring up Indian Tribes in southern Georgia against the United States. Andrew Jackson was ordered to lead the American forces into the area and settle the trouble. Jackson called for the Tennessee Mounted Riflemen to back him in battles along the Mississippi/Georgia Border in this the Creek or Red Stick War. William’s sons, James and John answered the call along with a young man from Eastern Tennessee named Davy Crockett. They fought the battles, returned home and planted their crops thinking that their war was over.

President Monroe, however, ordered Jackson onto New Orleans, Louisiana. Monroe had learned of a huge buildup of British troops in the Caribbean. Jackson again called for the Tennessee Mounted Riflemen to go Louisiana along with the Kentucky Long Rifles, the Creoles who had escaped from the slave uprising in Haiti, the French in New Orleans, freed men of color and even pirates. Five PACE brothers answered this call. James Pace was made captain. Jackson was uneasy with the idea that the British would attach New Orleans. He believed that their strategy was to invade at Mobile, Alabama.

However, British Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham (brother-in-law Lord Nelson) had been promised the Governorship of all of Louisiana when the English defeated the Americans, and ordered that the English would attack New Orleans with 8,000 experienced British soldiers who recently had been transported from Waterloo, Belgium, where they had defeated Napoleon. Major General Pakenham was sure that he could easily defeat the rag-tag American Army in the Battle of New Orleans.

There are two things to remember about this battle:

The War was over. The treaty of Ghent had been signed, but not ratified.
It went on for about 6 weeks with small skirmishes and large battles.

For many years, French residents had plantations, the Chalmette group, about seven miles south of New Orleans. In December 1814, the British overran the plantation of Jacques Villere, and the Americans attacked on the night on December 23^rd to drive them out in the “Night Battle of New Orleans.” It was a vicious battle with 213 American casualties and a larger number of English.

Chalmette Battle Field Cemetery

Captain James Pace was killed in this battle on December 23, 1814 and we believe that he is buried in the Chalmette Battlefield Cemetery. This battle was followed two weeks later by the victory at New Orleans on January 8, 1815.

This was a great triumph. Andrew Jackson picked a choice spot to throw up his tall defense barricade. The Mississippi river was on the west and a dangerous swamp on the east of the battlefield. The British had to advance down a narrow corridor, for they were scared to death of the swamp. Only 28 Americans were killed in this battle and the British lost 3,200 men that day, including Major General Pakenham. For the Pace family, there was a second tragedy, as John Pace was also killed. This date, January 8^th, was celebrated as a National Holiday until the Civil War.

Mary Ann Loving Pace, Captain James Pace’s widow, had to struggle to collect her husband’s back army pay. She was required to put up a $1,000.00 bond, which was probably the Plantation. Imagine how much a $1,000 represented in 1815 on the frontier where there was very little money in circulation.

In the early 1830s, two sons of Captain James and Mary Ann Loving Pace, William Franklin and James, were converted to the Mormon faith by John D. Lee. They sold their plantations, manumitted their slaves except for the few that chose to stay with the family and moved to the Mormon Settlement in Nauvoo, Ill. At that time, Nauvoo was the largest settlement in Illinois with about 12,000 people (Chicago was somewhat smaller.) The Pace brothers had their large farms across the Mississippi River in Southwestern Iowa.

Their neighbors were fearful of their potential political power and distrustful of this new religion. As a result, on June 27, 1844 the Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother were martyred. In February 1846 the Paces, along with the other converts, were driven out of Nauvoo by mobs and they moved west across Iowa with the church leader, Brigham Young. That year the weather had been extremely cold and the Mississippi River was frozen solid. The Mormons were thus able to escape by driving their wagons on the ice across the river from Illinois to Iowa.

The map below shows the areas of the Western United States claimed by various countries in 1840. The future state of Utah was part of Mexico. When they first arrived in the Salt Lake area, the early Mormon leaders had no idea to whom they owed allegiance. The area on the map claimed by Mexico was the territory gained by the United States with their victory in the Mexican War and the subsequent Gadsden Purchase.

James Pace was one of the 500 Mormon men who volunteered to join the Mormon Battalion as part of the United States Army of the West; these men were to fight in the War with Mexico. The United States officers who headed the Mormon Battalion appointed James Pace (Uncle Jimmy) a Lieutenant and, therefore, as an officer he was a gentlemen and had to have servants. He thus took as servants his 15 year old son William Bryant Pace and his 15 year old nephew Wilson Daniel Pace, my great-grandfather. These boys were cook’s helpers and I imagine got in on a lot of jobs on the long trek west.

The Mormon Battalion was a part of Kearney’s Army of the West. It was a very unusual military group in that most of the men could read and write at a time when only about
1½ % of the United States’ population was literate. We now know of at least 10 diaries that were written by members recording the march. Many men were highly trained artisans, carpenters, furniture-builders etc.

They arrived in San Diego on January 29, 1847 after a march of 1,900 miles. Here they raised the American Flag, cleaned up the deserted Mexican Fort on the hill above Old Town; built brick kilns and fired the first bricks in San Diego. They then dig 18 wells lined them with bricks and built the first San Diego Courthouse…out of bricks of course.

Early San Diego, California. Several of these buildings are in use today

The Battalion rested several months at the Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside where one of their guides, Jean Carbonneau (the son of Sacajawea) was made Alcalde. Then they were called to Los Angeles where they celebrated, with Kearney’s battalion of Army of the West, the first July 4^th in California in 1847 at Fort Moore. The army had harvested two tall trees from the San Bernardino mountains, spliced them together and set up a flagpole. However, they forgot to rig the pole for the flag and my great grandfather, Wilson Daniel Pace, (that 15 year old boy) climbed the pole and nailed the flag on it. The celebration then could go forward with military parades, the reading of the Preamble of the Constitution in English and Spanish, the singing of Yankee Doodle, etc.

Their enlistment ended in Los Angeles on July 16, 1847 and the men made their way back to Utah and Iowa for their families. Eventually this line of Paces settled and thrived in Utah and Arizona.

The Paces had made it from sea to shining sea and here is a message for some present-day descendents of Richard and Isabella.

Sources and References

Billings, Warren M.:

Editor: The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century; A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606-1700, Revised Edition; (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, 2007.)

Billings, Warren M., John E. Selby, and Thad W. Tate:

Colonial Virginia: a History. (White Plains, NY: KTO, 1986).

Howard, Bruce A.:

A Sketch and History of Our Colonial Ancestors from 1619 to 1799; (Quitman, MS, Specialty Printing and Publishing, 1998).

Kupperman, Karen Ordahl:

The Jamestown Project; (Cambridge MA, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.)

Langguth, E. J.:
Union 1812 (New York, Simon and Schuster, 2007)

London Metropolitan Archives

40 Northampton Road

London EC1R OHB

McCartney, Martha W.:

Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary; (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company. 2007)

Pace, James:

The Autobiography and Diary of James Pace 1811-1888, (Brigham Young University Library; 1946. Distributed by the Pace Society of America)

Stanard, Mary Newton:
A History of the Jamestown Period 1607-1700; 400^th Anniversary edition (Philadelphia and London, J. P Lipcott Co.; 1928 (reprinted 2007)

Turner, Freda Reid (ed.):
The Pace Family 1607-1750, (Roswell, New Mexico, W.H. Wolfe Associates, Distributed by the Pace Society of America; 1993.)

Digital Sources

Brown, Kathleen M.:

Women in Early Jamestown; (Jamestown Interpretive Essays, Virtual Jamestowne. Virginia Center for Digital History, University of Virginia at http://www.virtualjamestown.org/essays/brown_essay.html)

Fausz, J. Frederick:

Jamestown at 400: Caught Between a Rock and a Slippery Slope; (History News Network, May 7, 2007) – <http://hnn.us/articles/38375.html>

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pace/jtown.htm

http://genealogical-gleanings.com/Jamestown.htm

http://www.jriarchaeology.com/pages/mtp.htm

http://mountpleasantplantation.com/site/

Officer, Lawrence H.:

Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1264 to 2010. <www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/

http://www.stdunstanstepney.org/

Virtual Jamestowne; Lawes Divine, etc.

Annual Meeting: June 18, 2011

2011-05-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

San Diego Yacht Club

What is more relaxing and quintessentially Californian than looking over a yacht harbor on a beautiful June day? The San Diego Yacht Club held the oldest active trophy in international sports, the America’s Cup, from 1988-95. Happily, it is the site of the next First California Company, Jamestowne Society meeting. The event will be held Saturday, June 18, 2011 from noon to 2:30 pm. We will enjoy the setting while holding our annual business meeting. Governor Ginny Gotlieb will report on the national Jamestowne Society meeting and Governors Roundtable.

The June program, entitled “Seeking Early Opportunity in Jamestown”, highlights the attraction of Jamestown. One of the earliest families to settle was that of Richard and Isabella Pace and their young son, George. Both were investors in the Virginia Company of London and were among the recipients of the first headrights or land grants. Two of their descendents, Martha Pace Gresham and Jim McCall, will give us insights into their lives and contributions to Jamestown’s survival and development. We will learn about what drove emigration from England to Virginia, how the settlers lived in those early days and what they did to help create the foundation for our American nation.

Landing at Jamestowne. Illustration courtesy of National Parks Service

Reservations: The Yacht Club will present a buffet lunch featuring seared chicken breast in a port wine sauce and beef tenderloin tips with a wild mushroom Bordelaise sauce. Cost is $30 per person, inclusive. Please send your reservation by June 10 to Treasurer, Harry Holgate, 115 West Fourth St., #208, Long Beach, California 90802-2312. Please include the name of all those attending, your address, phone, and email. We look forward to seeing you and having time for everyone to visit.

February Meeting Summary: “Elizabethan Clothing as a Clue to Class, Commerce, Christianity, and Competition”

2011-04-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

Company President, Ginny Gotlieb
with guest speaker, Barbara Barbarics

Barbara Barbarics presented a talk titled “Elizabethan Clothing as a Clue to Class, Commerce, Christianity, and Competition” to the First California Company’s February 2011 meeting in Claremont. She brought examples of the elaborate clothing worn by “the better sort” and showed the effort it took to dress properly.

Men and women were equally vain and elaborately dressed. Of particular importance to men was a well-turned leg. Shakespeare has Juliet's nurse commend Romeo by noting, "Though his face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels all men's".

Ms. Barbarics showed various examples of ruffs, the stiff, pleated detached collars worn by men and women. It was a vehicle for conspicuous consumption when made exceptionally large and decorated with fine lace, jewels and embroidery. The ruff was heavily starched - and often rather dirty because maintenance was difficult. The natural ivory tone was often died a soft pastel until Queen Elizabeth I ruled that blue ruffs would no longer be tolerated. A wire covered in silk was pinned to a man’s doublet or a woman’s dress and the ruff pinned to it. In fact, the entire wardrobe consisted of components pinned together with straight pins. The safety pin had not yet been invented. Over their shirt men wore a doublet long enough to cover small holes on the inner side to which their britches were laced. Britches’ length varied from the very top of the thigh to the knee, depending on style and the shape of the wearer’s leg. For the wealthy, britches would be made of multiple layers of fine fabric with the outer most layer in panes or strips through which fancy inner fabric could be pulled in a puff. For poorer men, a high-collared doublet would allow the undershirt to overflow in a softly gathered collar without a separate ruff and britches would be of a simple, sturdy fabric. Over the doublet at the waist was a leather girdle that allowed men to tie on a purse and perhaps a pen case and ink horn. Over all this might be a jerkin, a sleeveless tunic often made of leather for working men. A man’s final covering might be a cloak or a long sleeved gown (think of a judge’s robe), perhaps trimmed in mink. Stockings were of wool or silk and gartered, another site for decoration.

The many components of a wealthy woman’s attire required staff to assist her in dressing. An under dress, bodice, separate skirt and sleeves were the basics. A poor woman would have little else. Most women could have multiple outfits by varying the combination of components. Elaborate, even bejeweled, hugely engorged sleeves were a favorite gift to the Queen. The rigid bodice was designed to give a long, pointed V shape and could be cut quite low, a look even the Queen favored at times. The wealthy might have an overskirt of elaborate material split in the front to show an underskirt, also of expensive material. The shape of the skirt was defined by a farthingale, a structure made of whalebone or rope or twigs, worn under the skirt. A stylish look was a flat front with wide extensions to the sides and back. A simpler woman could tie a bum roll around her waist to lift the edge of her skirt at the back and sides. She often wore an apron over the basic skirt.

Ms. Barbarics explained how detailed “Sumptuary Laws” regulated what could be worn by those of each class. For example, no one could wear silk in hose, hats, nightcaps, girdles or scabbards except a Knight’s son and heir, his son’s wife or his daughter and any man worth 200 pounds in goods. Servants, shepherds, common laborers, and farmers worth less than 10 pounds a year could not wear fur of any sort. This illuminated how the rigid class structure was manifest and enforced and thus played such a big part in the early years in Jamestown.

"The Sea Venture in a Heavy Sea in 1609,"
painting by Christopher Grimes

Reference was made to the wreck of the Sea Venture, Stephen Hopkins’ challenge to authority in Bermuda, Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, and the cultural life of London. There was a lively discussion after the presentation.

Next meeting, February 26, 2011: “The Sea Venture, Shakespeare, and Elizabeth’s London”

2011-01-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

by Ginny Gotlieb

Barbara Barbarics, our February speaker

Our winter meeting should be especially fun. Barbara Barbarics will review the story of the Third Supply of Jamestown, which may have inspired William Shakespeare to write his final play, “The Tempest”. To help get you in the mood for Ms. Barbarics’ presentation, see our blog post “The Sea Venture and the Reestablishment of Jamestown” for a brief summary of this amazing episode in Jamestown history.

Understanding London and Shakespeare’s audience at the beginning of the seventeenth century provides a context for understanding the economic striving and social and political turmoil that were characteristic of Jamestown’s earliest years. To illustrate this, Ms. Barbarics will bring items of clothing typical of the period, which tell us a surprising amount about the difference between gentlemen and laborers. Shakespeare’s play puts on stage fear of unknown people and places, efforts subjugating and educating, class structure and the responsibilities of those in authority, magical thinking, duplicity and capacity for redemption. Ms. Barbarics will discuss how Jamestown and the play reveal aspects of the English mindset as England began to transform from a Medieval culture to an economic and world power. “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” (Prospero, The Tempest, IV, i, 148-158).

Elizabeth I of England

Barbara Barbarics is active with the English Speaking Union and has served on the committee for the Los Angeles area’s Shakespeare Competition. She has been part of the Summer Workshop in Teaching Shakespeare, co-sponsored by the Huntington Library and the English Speaking Union. She is the retired co-chair of the San Marino High School English Department. Barbara has won awards for her teaching and presentations, including awards from DAR. A TAP Excellence in Teaching grant allowed her to study in England on the topic “Castle to Manor House.” She was educated at Roanoke College and the University of Virginia.

The venue and schedule

A lively favorite of faculty and students, Walter’s Restaurant is in the heart of Claremont Village, an area of cute shops and galleries, one block from Pomona College. We will have the private Cottage Room and will be able to place personal orders that day from a selected menu. Following a brief business meeting, lunch, and our speaker’s presentation, we will have an hour to socialize while enjoying a variety of desserts and coffee and tea. Walter’s is a bistro known for its California and French fusion style with specialties from around the world.

Getting there by automobile

Walter’s Restaurant is located at 308 North Yale Avenue, between Bonita and 4^th St., one block east of Indian Hill Blvd. Claremont Village can be reached from the 10 or 210 freeways, via Indian Hill Blvd. exits.

Getting there by train

For those interested in coming by train, Walter’s is four blocks from the Claremont Depot. Metrolink has a weekend promotional, the Friends and Family 4-Pack. For $29, it covers four people traveling together all day. There is a train out of Union Station in downtown Los Angeles at 10:40 am that arrives in Claremont at 11:34 am. There is a return train at 4:13 pm that arrives at Union Station at 5:15 pm.

Jamestowne Society First California Company, Winter Meeting

Date: Saturday, February 26, 2011

Time: Noon to Three-thirty

Place: Walter’s Restaurant, Claremont, CA, 308 North Yale Avenue, between Bonita and 4^th St., one block east of Indian Hill Blvd.

RSVP by February 19 with a check for $32 per person to Treasurer, Harry Holgate

Harry Holgate

115 West Fourth Street, #208,

Long Beach, CA 90802.

Please include the names of those attending, with your current address, phone, and email.

The Sea Venture and the Reestablishment of Jamestown

2011-01-24T22:05:00.000-08:00

By Ginny Gotlieb

"The Sea Venture in a heavy Sea in 1609,"
painting by Christopher Grimes

The Virginia Company’s Third Supply to Jamestown was to have finally put the colony on solid footing. Seven ships with five to six hundred people left Plymouth, England June 2, 1609. The lead ship, the Sea Venture, the first ship designed specifically to carry emigrants, was on her maiden voyage. It included Admiral of the Company, Sir George Somers, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Gates, the colony’s governor, and Captain Christopher Newport. But, alas, less than a week from reaching Virginia the fleet was separated in a terrible storm that raged for several days. The Sea Venture, with nine feet of water in her hold, wrecked on the reef of a reputedly haunted island, known to mariners as “The Devil’s Island”. Maps of the time encircled it with sea serpents.

The shipwreck in The Tempest, Act i, Scene 1,
in a 1797 engraving based on a painting by George Romney

The uninhabited island we know as Bermuda proved a benign and beautiful place to winter with abundant food and cedar to built two small ships rigged with sails from the Sea Venture. However, over the course of this winter in paradise, discord among the survivors led to charges of mutiny on two occasions. Debates about the course of action were exacerbated by differences in class and even religious outlook. One challenge to authority came from Stephen Hopkins, later a Mayflower passenger, who was condemned to death, a sentence later commuted after “the better sort” pleaded for his life. A contemporary report noted that “the sea and land commandours [Somers and Gates], being alienated one from another (a qualetye over common to the English)…produced, not only a separation of the company (even in this extremitie, even in this straight place), but an affection of disgracing one another, and crossing their designes.” (A Land As God Made It, James Horn, p.163)

Meanwhile, the other six bedraggled ships had arrived in Jamestown in August of 2009, tripling the colony’s population at a time when food was running low. Most of the ships’ provisions were spoiled or lost and many men were sick. Interim Governor John Smith faced multiple challenges to his authority, as that “qualetye over common to the English” of alienating each other and working at cross purposes was in evidence here as well. That winter in Jamestown the colonists suffered through “The Starving Time”, as they struggled with the Indians, each other, and discordant leadership following the departure of Captain John Smith in the fall of 1609. By May 1610 when Gates and Somers finally appeared at Jamestown a mere sixty colonists survived – barely. Gates had expected a more vibrant settlement and had brought only enough food from Bermuda to last the sea voyage to Virginia. Realizing that they could not go on, Gates made the decision to abandon the colony. He had the cannon buried at the front gate of the palisade, boarded the survivors on his ship and on June 7, 1610 headed down the James River. By chance or providence, the following afternoon they were met by Lord De La Warr’s expedition and ordered to return to Jamestown. As John Smith later wrote, “God… would not have it [the colony] so abandoned.” (Horn, p. 180).

Crew member, Silvester Jourdan published a pamphlet in London in October 1610 entitled “A Discovery of the Bermudas, otherwise called the Isle of Divels”. William Strachey, a stockholder in Blackfriar’s Theater, London, wrote a first person account of the hurricane that destroyed the Sea Venture that was widely circulated in London before Shakespeare wrote his last play, “The Tempest”. The play was performed before King James at Whitehall as early as 1611. This wondrous show of spirits and dukes, duplicity, magic and confusion, contemplates the nature of man, the reality and artificiality of social hierarchy, and the responsibilities of governing. There is a love story subplot. It ends with a theme of acceptance and reconciliation, an “awareness of normal humanity after it has been purged of evil”. (Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism, Leonard Dean, p.460). Perhaps the play is a fitting metaphor for the crucible that formed a new nation.

Because May 2010 was the 400^th anniversary of the arrival of the Sea Venture in Jamestown, there have been interesting theatrical productions of “The Tempest” in Los Angeles and San Diego this year. If you missed these, there are several movie versions. Most recently, Helen Mirren stared in the normally male lead role of Prospero/Prospera in a feminist interpretation of “The Tempest” directed by Julie Taymor, just released in December 2010.

Arrival of Lord Delaware, painting by Sidney King

Upcoming Genealogical Fairs

2011-01-24T21:58:00.000-08:00

By Ginny Gotlieb

Our Company will staff information tables at two genealogical events this spring to encourage membership in the Jamestowne Society. Please let me know if you can provide a few hours to staff our booths. My email is fccjamestownegov@gmail.com. Also, please contact me if you have any of our printed brochures or bring them to the February meeting.

Escondido Family History Fair

The Escondido Family History Fair held March 5 includes a day of seminars free to the public. If you would like to register to attend, as well as giving some time at our table, view their website at http://www.familyhistoryfair.net.

Southern California Genealogical Society’s Jamboree

The biggest genealogical fair in the country is the Southern California Genealogical Society’s Jamboree, held this year in Burbank June 10-12, 2011. We need multiple volunteers to cover our table from Friday afternoon through mid-afternoon Sunday. The Jamboree has over one hundred excellent speakers and many exhibitors. You need not register to volunteer in the exhibit hall. If you would like to attend the programs, on one day or all three, information is found at http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/2011jam-home.htm. This year there will also be a Family History Writers Conference on Thursday.

Condolences

2011-01-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

Catherine "Catsy" Wylie Hopkins (Taylor) Schafer

The First California Company extends condolences to the family of our loyal and generous member Catherine “Catsy” Wylie Hopkins (Taylor) Schafer. Catsy passed away January 11, 2011 just shy of her ninety- seventh birthday. Many of us enjoyed celebrating her ninety-fifth birthday with her at the Getty Center. Catsy was born in Maryland but she and her husband raised their children in Panama. Trained as a nurse, she worked both in the Canal Zone and at the San Diego Naval Hospital. She came to San Diego with her second husband, Lt. Col. Vernon L. Schafer, after the early death of her first husband, William N. Taylor. Catsy was active in many lineage societies. Having both talent and a love of art, Catsy studied and painted coats of arms. She is survived by two daughters, seven grandchildren, and nineteen great-grandchildren.

The Virginia colonists’ first recorded Christmas

2010-12-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

By Martha W. McCartney

"Old Christmas" was not an easy time.

Although nothing is known about the Virginia colonists’ very first Christmas, commemorated on January 6, 1608 (“Old Christmas”), it is likely that the cold and hungry settlers huddled together in the fort at Jamestown marked the occasion with a religious service. But sickness and the lingering presence of death left the colonists little cause for merriment or stamina for celebration. The very next day, the fort burned.

Thanks to Captain John Smith’s narrative, we have a fleeting glimpse of the colonists’ second Christmas in the New World. On December 29, 1608, Smith (then president of the colony) and a dozen gentlemen and soldiers set sail from Jamestown in the Discovery, catching the outbound tide. Close behind was another small boat that carried 25 men. The blustery winter wind tugged at the vessels’ sails, propelling them downstream toward the mouth of the James. Smith and his companions were bound for the York River village of the native emperor Powhatan, who ruled the Indians of Virginia’s coastal plain. Powhatan knew that the Jamestown settlers were famished and offered to exchange a shipload of corn for some weapons, trinkets, a hen and a rooster, and an English-style house. Smith willingly accepted the offer, for the colonists were in desperate need of food. However, he was prepared to take it by force, if necessary.

Some twenty miles below Jamestown, Captain Smith and his companions paused overnight at the village of the Warraskoyack Indians. They availed themselves of the natives’ hospitality and then set out at dawn, despite gathering storm clouds. Soon, frigid gusts hurled sleet and snow into their faces and glazed their sailing vessels with ice. They turned toward shore to wait out the storm and came to land near the mouth of the James.

A Christmas feast of Indian foods was a generous gift to
Captain John Smith and his fellow adventurers.

Smith and his group sought refuge with the Kecoughtan Indians, whose village lay upon a large open plain near Old Point Comfort. The natives welcomed their unexpected guests with special gifts in their hour of need: food, shelter, and the warmth of human kindness. The Englishmen spent Christmas at Kecoughtan, partaking freely of the Indians’ generosity. Smith later wrote that “the extreme wind, raine, frost and snow caused us to keep Christmas among the Salvages.” He added that “wee were never more merrie nor fedd on more plentie of good oysters, fish, flesh [meat], wild foule and good bread.” He also said that he and his companions had “never had better fires in England then [sic] in the drie warm smoaky houses of Kecoughtan.” Thus united by the bond of human kinship, the first English colonists and Virginia’s natives shared their Creator’s bounty.

About the author:

Martha W. McCartney is a research historian and author of several books relating to the early settlement of Virginia. She was the featured speaker at the October meeting of the First California Company of the Jamestowne Society. Her books include Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary, and Jamestown: American Legacy.

Twelfth Night in Colonial Virginia

2010-12-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

By Martha W. McCartney

Although no written records have come to light describing how colonial Virginians decorated their houses-of-worship during the Christmas season, at least one English song makes reference to the “Holly and Ivy, Box [boxwood], and Bay, Put in the Church on Christmas Day.” Poems, carols, and artwork reveal that homes, taverns, and even the streets often were adorned with greenery, a longstanding custom. Historians surmise that the usual English decorating traditions would have been transplanted to Virginia.

Holly, which grows abundantly in Virginia, was used to decorate fireplace mantles, was tucked into vases, and fashioned into wreathes that were hung indoors or out. Other native plant materials also would have been used. The Christmas season, which began on December 25^th, ended on Twelfth Night, January 6^th.The twelve days of Christmas were festive and often included elaborate parties, formal balls, gaming, horse races, and weddings. Houses great and small were crowded with guests and near-neighbors who came for the merrymaking, which sometimes lasted for several days.

Some people believed that it was unlucky to leave holly decorations up after Twelfth Night or Epiphany, but others were convinced that the prickly branches should be saved, to attract good luck or as some thought, to prevent lightening strikes. The English and their colonists used the Julian or “Old Style” calendar as did other Protestant countries. It wasn’t until 1752 that England officially adopted the Gregorian or “New Style” calendar, which Roman Catholic Europe began using in 1582 because it conformed more closely to the solar year. It is the date-keeping system we use today. Some Orthodox communities of faith celebrate Christmas on January 6^th, the Gregorian calendar equivalent of December 25^th.

About the author:

The first American Thanksgiving was in Virginia

2010-11-21T22:56:00.000-08:00

Captain John Woodleaf conducts the first American Thanksgiving upon safe arrival in Virginia.
Image courtesy of Berkeley Plantation.

Contrary to popular belief, the first American Thanksgiving was in Virginia – not Plymouth, Massachusetts.

On December 4, 1619, after ten weeks at sea, thirty-eight English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred, about 20 miles upstream from Jamestowne. On that day, Captain John Woodleaf held the first service of Thanksgiving as the newly-landed settlers fell to their knees to thank God for their safe arrival.

The Charter of Berkeley Hundred stated "We ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."

Thus, the real first American Thanksgiving was held a year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and two years before the fabled New England feast.

Historians say the feast at Berkeley Hundred may have included bacon, peas, cornmeal cakes, and cinnamon water. But regardless of the menu, to these settlers, the first Thanksgiving was much more than turkey and pumpkin pie. It was all about prayer.

After several years, the site became Berkeley Plantation, and was the long traditional home of the Harrison Family, one of the First Families of Virginia. Berkeley Plantation was the birthplace of William Henry Harrison, 9th U.S. President and Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the Declaration of Independence. It is also the Ancestral Home of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd U.S. President.

Berkeley Plantation

To learn more about the first Thanksgiving CLICK HERE.

To learn more about Berkeley Plantation CLICK HERE.

Pictures from the October Meeting

2010-11-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

Sit back and enjoy this set of pictures from the October 2010 meeting.

For a better view, click on the menu button at the lower left corner of the slide show window and select Full Screen.

Our October meeting was one to remember

2010-10-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

With an outstanding speaker, a stunning venue, and a packed house, the October meeting of the First California Company of the Jamestowne Society was, by all accounts, one to remember.

Research historian and author Martha W. McCartney presented a tantalizing view of the early settlers at Jamestowne. Through her many years of research relating to the Jamestowne settlement, she discovered a number of unique resources and methodologies to compensate for the loss of courthouse records during the Civil War. In so doing, one of her methods was to develop profiles and records on individual settlers. Her book, Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary is one of the fruits of this unique methodology. Her detailed accounts of events in the lives of specific individuals gave her presentation at our meeting a sense of immediacy and intimacy. Her presentation was also supported with a rich collection of maps and illustrations. A lively Q&A session followed the presentation and Governor Ginny Gotlieb eventually had to conclude the discourse because our time was up.

Mrs. McCartney also described two new books that she expects to publish in the near future. One of her new books focuses on the Jordan’s Point settlement at Jamestowne. Copies of her Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers book may be purchased by clicking HERE.

Attendees at the meeting included members of other historical societies such as the D.A.R. Prior to the meeting, attendees had an opportunity to meet and mingle. It appeared that many new connections were made between attendees, including several prospective members for our Company.

The venue itself was stunning. The Regency Club on the seventeenth floor of a Westwood high-rise offered spectacular views, sumptuous facilities, a wonderful meal, and first class service.

Company business included the swearing in of Harry Holgate as Treasurer and Phyllis Kinzle as Database Manager. The Company also approved the funding of $500 to the parent organization for the purpose of reducing the mortgage on Society headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.

Featured speaker, Martha W. McCartney and First California Company Governor, Ginny Gotlieb

A packed house for a fascinating presentation.

Treasurer, Harry Holgate and Database Manager, Phyllis Kinzle are sworn in by Parliamentarian, Martha Gresham

Attendees had ample time for meeting and mingling before the meeting.

Next Meeting: October 23, 2010

2010-09-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

By Ginny Gotlieb

Do you want to know all the good seventeenth century gossip? Who’s related to whom and their occupation? Our fall program will provide tidbits and guidance on clues to learning about these early settlers. Martha McCartney, author of Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary, will draw on her years of experience as a professional researcher when she speaks to us at our October meeting. She is the author of four books and many articles on the people of early Virginia. McCartney has served as a research historian at the Virginia Research Center for Archaeology and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. McCartney is a graduate of The College of William and Mary and a resident of Williamsburg.

Martha McCartney is the preeminent historian of the people of Jamestown. When she meets with us in October, her newest book on Jamestown will have just been published. This book will include biographical data on residents and all who came to Jamestown on public business, such as service as a Burgess, through 1699 when the capital was moved to Williamsburg. She is the author of four books and many published articles and reports. The National Park Service chose her book, Jamestown Island: An American Legacy as “best in field.” McCartney has served as a research historian at the Virginia Research Center for Archaeology and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. McCartney is a graduate of The College of William and Mary and a resident of Williamsburg. Her meticulous research puts flesh on genealogical data.

Guest are welcome

Martha McCartney

McCartney is coming to California to speak exclusively to the First California Company and our guests - her first speaking engagement here in many years. For this reason, we are opening our meeting to guests from other organizations. If you are involved in other lineage groups, you may announce this opportunity and invite their members to attend. Interested parties should contact Ginny Gotlieb, First California Company’s Governor at FCCJamestowneGov@gmail.com. It is truly a treat to host Martha McCartney for this address.

The Regency Club

Our fall program will be at the elegant Regency Club in Westwood. This private setting offers stunning views of the Westside of Los Angeles, exceptional food, and excellent service. We will have the top floor exclusively for our event. The Regency Club is located just off the 405 freeway at the Wilshire Boulevard East exit. There is parking in the building. This prix fixe event will be a little more than some of our luncheons but is well worth it. We are pleased to offer our members the opportunity to attend an event in this unique setting.

Jamestowne Society First California Company, Fall Meeting

October 23, 2010, 11:00am to 2:00pm

The Regency Club, Westwood, CA

10900 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Guest speaker: Martha W. McCartney, research historian and author of Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary

RSVP by October 16. No walk-ins.

If you have not received a meeting invitation by mail, please contact Ginny Gotlieb at 818-635-5764 or FCCJamestowneGov@gmail.com

Governor’s Message: Introducing Our New Board

2010-09-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

By Ginny Gotlieb

As your new Governor, I want to welcome our new board and thank all who have agreed to serve. I am pleased that some of our newer members are moving into leadership roles and that former Governors and others who have worked hard for the First California Company for years are still supporting us so heartily.

Ginny Gotlieb, Scott Krutilek, Linda Ramos, Pat Fleming, Cathy Matranga, Tese Gorszwick, Barbara Skimina, and Sandy Krutilek

First California Company Jamestowne Board 2010-2012

Governor: Ginny Gotlieb

Lt. Governor: Scott Krutilek

Secretary: Linda Ramos

Chaplain: Patricia Fleming

Membership: Cathie Matranga

Historian: Tese Gorszwick

Newsletter/Blog: Billy Pittard

Councilors: Joanne Murphy

Martha Gresham

Sandy Krutilek

Barbara Skimina

We are seeking a Treasurer and an Invitations Manager who can serve until June 2012. Please consider whether you would like to be part of our management team and contact me for more details if you might be interested.

Our thanks go to Charlotte Gresham for maintaining our informative website over the past few years. This site provides information on membership in the Jamestowne Society, a list of currently approved ancestors, information on our events, a reading list and other useful information about Jamestowne. It’s a great resource for both members and prospective members. Our website can be found here: http://www.jamestownecalifornia.org

Looking forward to a great meeting in October

Do you want to know all the good 17^th century gossip? Who is related to whom and their occupation? Our fall program will provide tidbits and guidance on clues to learning about these early settlers. Martha McCartney, author of Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary, will draw on her years of experience as a professional researcher when she speaks to us on Saturday, October 23, 2010. She is the author of four books and many articles on the people of early Virginia. McCartney has served as a research historian at the Virginia Research Center for Archaeology and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. McCartney is a graduate of The College of William and Mary and a resident of Williamsburg. You will receive your invitation in the next few weeks.

Looking forward to a great future for First California Company

We have a stimulating year coming up and it is made more interesting as more members are active participants. We can now stay easily connected to each other with the First California Company’s new blog. This blog will be a source of information and a means to stay in touch between meetings. We may be far from Jamestown but we need not be far from each other!

Outgoing Governor Joanne Murphy and incoming Governor Ginny Gotlieb

Has the Original Jamestown Church Been Found?

2010-08-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

Archaeologists and visitors mark the discovered postholes and probable locations of to-be-excavated postholes of the possible 1608 church.

Over the past two months the Jamestowne Rediscovery Archeological Project has found what may be the site and remains of the original church at Jamestowne.

In 1610, William Strachey, secretary of the Virginia colony, described Jamestown's church as "...a pretty chapel...in length three-score foot, in breadth twenty-four...”

The Jamestown Rediscovery team has found six postholes, unusually deep, unusually large in diameter, and most interestingly, they appear to fit perfectly into Strachey's description of what was Jamestown's first substantial church, built in 1608 and being the probable location of the wedding of John Rolfe and Pocahontas. There is a sense of cautious optimism among the archaeologists that they have indeed found the spiritual hub of the colony.

CLICK HERE to see the full article on the Historic Jamestowne website, including a video showing how the dig is progressing.

CLICK HERE for a detailed story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper.

This 1840 painting by John Gadsby Chapman depicts Pocahontas, being baptized Rebecca at the church believed to have been found in Jamestowne. The baptism took place before her marriage to John Rolfe, who stands behind her. The scene symbolizes the belief of Americans at the time that Native Americans should accept Christianity and other European ways.

Thanks go to First California Company member James McCall for providing information for this post. Find more interesting news and information about Jamestowne at James' Jimson Harvest blog.

New Member, Mary Weisiger Andeen tells of her family’s Pocahontas Cameo Brooch

2010-08-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

New member of the First California Company, Mary Weisiger Andeen is not only a descendant of Pocahontas, but her family has passed down through the generations, a beautiful cameo brooch believed to have belonged to Pocahontas and carved in her likeness.

The original Pocahontas Cameo

Mary Weisiger Andeen explains, “The cameo came down through the family to my grandfather, Cary Nelson Weisiger, Jr. and then to my father, Cary Nelson Weisiger III. He gave it to the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. It is on display at the museum there as one of two items that are believed to have belonged to Pocahontas.”

It is believed that King James I and Queen Anne presented the cameo to Pocahontas in 1616 during her visit to London with her husband John Rolfe and their son Thomas. A London jeweler carved her likeness in high relief from a piece of blue onyx. Family legend has it that the cameo was originally set in gold and surrounded by pearls and rubies.

During the Civil War, the brooch was vandalized and the setting was stolen by Union soldiers when they rode through Southside Virginia. Not realizing the importance of the blue onyx cameo, the Union troops pried the cameo out of its original setting and discarded the cameo. Rolfe family descendants recovered the cameo and had placed in a simple silver setting.

The replica brooch is presented to Queen Elizabeth II

As part of the 400^th anniversary celebration of Jamestowne, the Pamunkey Indians of Virginia presented Queen Elizabeth II with a replica of the Pocahontas brooch. A beautiful free 34-page booklet about the brooch and the replica given to the Queen is available by clicking here.

Mary shared this additional information about her ancestry: “You may know that the Pocahontas line goes through the Bolling family. Anne Meade Bolling married Joseph Kendall Weisiger in 1824, my 3-great grandparents. I was always told as a child that we were descendants of Pocahontas. My grandparents had a 100-acre farm outside of Charlottesville, Virginia named ‘Pocahontas.’ When I got into genealogy about three years ago I realized that many, many people make the claim of being Pocahontas descendants. I decided I needed to verify my claim, and in April I was accepted to membership in the Jamestowne Society as a descendant of Pocahontas."

We are very happy to welcome Mary Weisiger Andeen to the First California Company, and thank her for sharing that wonderful story!

Mary Weisiger Andeen shows Cathie Matranga a picture of the Pocahontas Cameo at the recent Southern California Genealogical Jamboree

First California Company at the Southern California Genealogical Jamboree

2010-08-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

First California Company of the Jamestowne Society had another successful presence at the recent Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. The conference was held in June at the Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel in Burbank. The Jamboree is an opportunity for our Company to reach out to potential members and make them aware of our organization. “I love visiting with lots of visitors about Jamestowne,” said our Jamboree organizer and Membership Chairman, Cathie Matranga.

Thanks go to Cathie and Gene Matranga for manning our booth for the first two days of the event, and to Sandy & Scott Krutilek for manning our booth on the third day.

The jamboree is an annual event held by the Southern California Genealogical Society. The next Jamboree is scheduled for June 10-12, 2011. It is a wonderful opportunity to network with others who are interested in genealogy, to attend genealogy workshops, and to explore an exhibit hall full of interesting resources.

Learn more about next year’s Genealogical Jamboree at this link:

http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/2010jam-home.htm

Cathie Matranga hosting our booth at the Southern California Genealogical Jamboree as Cher Bucknam, former Governor of our Company stops by for a visit.

A new blog for the First California Company of the Jamestowne Society

2010-07-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new blog! It is our hope that this blog will provide a better way to stay in touch with our members between meetings. We hope this blog can become our primary vehicle for communication about events, meetings, and any kind of news we believe may be of interest to our members.

We believe a blog is a good solution because it’s much simpler to create and deliver than a newsletter. We’ll also be able to include color photos, videos, and links to other online resources. If you'd like a paper version of the articles, you can print them.

We'll email our members and friends whenever there is something critical to see on this blog. You can visit the blog any time or “follow” it in any of the usual ways. For the few members who do not use computers, our plan is to send critical information by regular mail.

My name is Billy Pittard and I will serve as your editor and blog master. I invite you to send me stories, news, photographs, etc. that you might like to share with your fellow members, and I will add it to the blog. Contact me at this address: FCCJamestowne@gmail.com