Photo: front view of the silver tankard gifted to Rev. Samuel Deane, 1775, showing the Latin inscription. Credit: First Parish Church, Portland, Maine.

Relics of Our Ancestors (part 3)

By Melissa Berry on January 16, 2024

In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about another relic from America’s past, a silver tankard gifted to Rev. Samuel Deane in 1775... (Read More)

Painting: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 35 (part 10)

By Melissa Berry on January 12, 2024

Melissa Berry’s 10th part in her series on Mayflower descendants focusing on Katie Crocker’s family line, again featuring an old family account book... (Read More)

Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 35 (part 9)

By Melissa Berry on January 9, 2024

Melissa Berry’s 9th part in her series on Mayflower descendants that focuses on Katie Crocker and her family line, featuring an old family account book... (Read More)

Illustration: cover of "Harper’s Weekly," Volume 23, 4 January 1879.

Christmas Letters (part 3)

By Melissa Berry on December 26, 2023

In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry shares a Christmas letter written by the daughter of a California Gold Rush 49er in 1879 when she was 15... (Read More)

Photo: a “Talking Letter” from Eugene Daly during WWII, February 1945. Courtesy of Portraits of War.

Christmas Letters (part 2)

By Melissa Berry on December 22, 2023

In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry shares “talking letters” families sent to their loved ones serving overseas... (Read More)

Photo: Gilbert “Gibby” Wyer in 1989, the year before he died. Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association.

Christmas Letters (part 1)

By Melissa Berry on December 19, 2023

In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry shares a Christmas letter written by a WWII soldier stationed in North Africa in 1942... (Read More)

Photo: the Pemberton Oak. Courtesy of Tennessee Virtual Archive

Tracing Jamestown Family Lines (part 2)

By Melissa Berry on December 15, 2023

In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes more about early Virginia families, especially the Pemberton line... (Read More)

Illustration: “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!” Patrick Henry delivering his great speech on the Rights of the Colonies, before the Virginia Assembly, convened at Richmond, 23 March 1775. His concluded his speech with the above sentiment, which became the war cry of the Revolution. Credit: Currier & Ives; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Wikimedia Commons.

Tracing Jamestown Family Lines (part 1)

By Melissa Berry on December 12, 2023

Melissa Davenport Berry writes about a Virginia jeweler’s account book from the 1760s and the history it contains about early Virginia families... (Read More)

Photo: Sarah Wheldon Kelley, daughter of Levi Kelley and Sally Wheldon. She was a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers George Soule, Myles Standish, George Sampson, John Alden, and Priscilla Mullins. She married Joseph Folger.

Nantucket Scrapbook Shows Mayflower Lines (part 2)

By Melissa Berry on December 8, 2023

Melissa Berry writes more about photos she found in an old Nantucket scrapbook; many of the families shown have direct lines to the Mayflower Pilgrims... (Read More)

Category: Genealogy Stories