Thanksgiving & the Pilgrims

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day, celebrated by Americans to give thanks to God (originally) for His many blessings and to commemorate the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and their families in New England and their amazing survival as a colony.

So much of the story is familiar, but I offer a personal connection. I am both an amateur historian and a descendant of Pilgrims: about 11 of my ancestors lived in Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. I hope to write some interesting things about their lives each year.

• Stephen Hopkins (a 1620 passenger on the Mayflower and a "Stranger", not a Separatist)
• Gyles Hopkins, his son (also a Mayflower passenger)
• Edward Bangs, arrived 1623.
• Gabriel Wheldon, arrived 1638.
• Catherine Wheldon, his daughter and Gyles' wife.
• Widow Mary Ring, arrived 1629 (former member of the Leiden church).
• Elizabeth Ring, her daughter.
• Josias Cooke, Elizabeth's husband, arrived about 1633.
• John Doane arrived about 1630.
• Augustine Bearse arrived in 1638.
• James Hamblen arrived about 1639.