January 10, 2025
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry previews some of the subjects and story ideas she will write about in 2025. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Hello Peeps! Happy New Year! Today I am previewing my feature stories, historical accounts, and genealogical gleanings that are coming in 2025.
Mayflower and Beyond
The “Mayflower Descendants: Who’s Who” series will continue. So, stay tuned!
Here is one scion I will have in my lineup: Guy Dana Curtis, born in England, who now resides in Massachusetts and whose ancestral lines include Mayflower passengers William Brewster and John Howland.
Last year I worked with Guy’s wife Kathy Williams Curtis on her application for membership into the Maine Mayflower Society under passenger James Chilton, and recently I assisted Guy with his application.
Here is a photo of the couple, who participated in the yearly reenactment which depicts the Colonial and British armies battling for control of the Red Horse Tavern in Sudbury, Massachusetts.
Paternity Dramas and Naughty Sketches
I will be featuring a set of new paternity dramas from 17th and 18th century New England court records, including Plymouth Colony.
And more “naughty crimes” stories similar to “The Mayflower Passengers’ Dark Side: Scandal in Plymouth Colony” and “Mayflower’s Billington Brothers: America’s 1st Juvenile Delinquents.”
To give a quick preview, here are two newsclips that inspired me for some upcoming stories. These two articles reveal the comings and goings of our Pilgrim ancestors back in the day.
In these two articles, Mayflower descendant Hon. John Davis Long, former Governor of Massachusetts and Secretary of the Navy, stirs up a hornet’s nest with fellow Pilgrim scions preparing to celebrate the tercentenary of the First Church of Plymouth when he spills some of their ancestors’ secrets.
According to Hon. Long, within the first decade of its founding social vices infested the community of Plymouth Colony: drunkenness, bickering, slander, and licentiousness were just a few.
The proof is in the pudding – and the Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England: Printed by Order of the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I have been deep into the research dish and it’s very delicious!
Family Scrapbooks and Photo Albums Including Family Reunions
I will continue to share scrapbooks and photo albums across the country and include a few family reunions – more scrapbook pages like this one, featuring a group of Army vets in Massachusetts, June of 1943. These fellows are identified so check back to get the skinny!
And to give another teaser, here is a photograph of the Hale family reunion from 1890 in Newbury, Massachusetts. The subjects in the photo are the Sons and Daughters of Newbury Settlers, courtesy of a Hale family descendant, Susan York Gagnon, who helped bring alive Stephen Pettingell Hale, the Old Sage of Newbury in one of my blog articles.
Historic Properties and Relics
Some of the historic sites and properties I will cover in stories this coming year are: the John Southwick House in Peabody, Massachusetts, currently owned by my cousin; the real man and mansion that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby; and the homesite of Governor William Bradford and his descendants, restored by Boston artist Edward Wilbur Dean Hamilton (1864-1943).
I’ll also feature more relics of the Salem witchcraft era, including a private collection of early Massachusetts papers dating back to the 17th century, and a look into the collection of early American furniture and portraits once owned by Kenneth Worcester Dow and his wife Mary Mohan Dow, now housed at the Smithsonian Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Almshouses, Asylums, and Reformatories
A treasure trove of intel can be found in the early almshouse, asylum and reformatory records.
My stories will include the infamous Danvers State Hospital (aka Danvers State Insane Asylum), with historical accounts furnished via my interview with historian Richard Trask.
Other Topics
Other subjects I will write about include: the Orphan Train Movement in the United States, 1854-1929; Irish immigration; Quakers in early 17th century America; Native American history; a new series in the making, “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up”; and much more!
If you have other story ideas you’d like to suggest, please leave a note in the comments section.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
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