Families have been gathering for Thanksgiving since the Pilgrims first arrived 387 years ago!
Don't we wish that there were scribes recording everything that went on at these reunions - documenting each member of the family, the old family stories, the recipes and the details of their lives.
Lucky for us many of these family gatherings were recorded in newspapers.
Here is an article that was published in the New Hampshire Sentinel - 28 Dec 1865 which had picked it up from the Providence Press.
This terrific article describes the physical stature and ability of 82 year old Daniel McIntyre of York, Maine and his good wife who was more than three times his size. The article supplies the interesting details that four generations of the family had gathered for Thanksgiving - that they had twelve children - eleven of whom were still living and ten that attended the gathering along with their children.
A quick search of familysearch.org shows that it was their first child, Nancy McIntyre (abt 1811-1838) was the child that had passed away. The article also speaks of Mary (Staples) McIntyre's good cooking - she probably liked to eat. Clearly she liked her own cooking - and for those of you who might be thinking of cutting back over Thanksgiving - consider that Mary at 225 lbs outlived her good husband at 72 lbs. by eleven years!
GenealogyBank had more articles about McIntyre's from York, Maine - there is Rufus McIntyre who served in Congress and a David S. McIntyre whose "reputation for mathematics" caused him to be called a "born mathematician". Guess over the Thanksgiving weekend I'll sort out how all of these McIntyre's are related.
It is really amazing what you can find online - these newspapers just beginning to open up and are now easily available to researchers.
What a great day for genealogy!
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