Thanksgiving, A New Appreciation Gained by Family Research

Thanksgiving is a great holiday, good food and a day to reflect on our blessings.  Man and I and our family always celebrated, ate ourselves into the "over stuffed" condition and yes, we were thankful for what we had.

THEN, I started family research.  I was working on my Bowen lineage just before Thanksgiving one year when I discovered that my ninth great grandfather, Richard Bowen had a little chat in 1653 with none other than Captain Myles Standish.

Captain Myles Standish is commonly believed to have been quite involved in the first "Thanksgiving" dinner in 1621.  I will let you Google away and read all that the internet has to offer on Standish and the first dinner, most likely in reality, a Harvest Dinner. 

(Image of Myles Standish to the right was found at Wikipedia and is in the pubic domain in the United States.)

Now after your research and reading more than you probably wanted to know, lets get back to my interest/connection, Richard Bowen.  Source:  "The Mayflower Descendant: A Quarterly Magazine of Pilgrim Genealogy and History, Volume XVII", 1915, Published by the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, Boston. This work can be found at GoogleBooks.  Here is the first paragraph, transcribed:

"Town of Rehoboth And The Purchasers
p. 112 Prence Govr.
Whereas the towne of Rehoboth the 28th of June 1653 Did Depute and Authorise Stephen Paine Richard Bowin Thomas Cooper and William Sabin as theire Deligates to treat and Conclude with Capt: Myles Standish Capt: Thomas Willett and Josias Winslow Concerning such lands and all other matters as are in Difference betwixt the towne of Rehoboth and the aforsaid Captaine Myles Standish Capt: Thomas Willett Josias Winslow and the rest; that are enterested in the said lands."

(Try this link, for the full octane version.)

There he is my 9th great grandfather, Richard Bowin, errr, Bowen, (remember, spelling don't count).  And he actually knew Myles Standish. 

Gotta say, once I saw this recorded document linking my Richard and Myles, I never could think about Thanksgiving in quite the same way.  Guess you could say I reacted just like a little kid, excited and running around doing a genie happy dance, snickering away, whispering to myself, "How cool is this??"   Amazing how a personal connection to history and our ancestors can enhance your view of historical events and celebrations.  Talk about "living history"!

Richard Bowen, my 9th great grandfather was born about 1590 reportedly in Wales, died in 1674 at Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, and is reportedly buried at the Newman Cemetery, now in Providence Rhode Island.

Happy Thanksgiving to Man, my entire family, and to my RVing, Blogging and Research friends. 

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