Pilgrimage to Plymouth

The Plymouth settlement

One last place I just had to visit was the Plimouth  Plantation,a representation of  the first Pilgrim village.It is especially meaningful to me as I recently learned that my landed ancestor,Thomas Eames ,lived in the Plymouth Colony. His was a tragic story as all but four of his children and his wife died at the hands of marauding Native Americans. The story is that the Native Americans were actually friendly with the Puritans and even attended church with them.

There was another group of Pilgrims(not Puritan) who also were living just north of the Puritan settlement and they were roudy and disrespectful of the Native American ways,ridiculing them and desecrating their burial grounds etc.  When enough was enough King Philip's war erupted against all the settlers.King Philip was a name given to th native leader. At any rate the tragedy occurred as a result of this uprising.

One thing I noticed about New England,there is a church,sometimes two on every block.

The town of Plymouth,itself, is a beautiful destination. Perfectly poised on the shore with every bit of New England ambiance one would desire

Time for a lunch break

So much atmosphere in this bakery shop. They didn't shove all the furniture out and place tables with chairs. Instead they left the sofa and it's chairs in place with small occassional tables placed in convenient place for coffee and snacks...all antique furniture,by the way.

Just to show a sample of the beautiful mums that are used profusely in the area

Some of the homebaked goodies just sitting there beckoning

As pleasant as the coffee shop was, we opted to go down by the ocean to enjoy our repast

Here we are at the town meeting house , the upstairs affords a good panoramic view to spy any approaching predators..with the added protection of cannons

Ready for Battle?

It boggles my mind that all these antiques are just sitting around and no one guarding. I warned this lady that I have her picture ,in case something comes up missing...a girl after my own heart,she answered she needed a closer look so she would know what to buy if she sees anything similar.

these folks have done their laundry,like dutiful Puritans

my eye caught that old rug on the fence

"Under the spreading chestnut tree,the village smithy stands"

a bucolic scene if I say so myself

Sharpening a spear

Many of these lovely chests came with our early settlers

Many of the homes had one room serves all concept and a few had two rooms.

airing the bedding,needs a little more than airing!

beautiful antiques

These ladies are baking bread. One was supposed to be the wife of Gov. Bradford. They role play as if they are the actual colonist.I had a little conversation with her ,just to see if she was up on her history facts...she was.

Every back yard needs a cannon or two

And so It's goodby to Plimouth Colony with all the reminders of the great struggle our forefathers endured that we might have religious freedom. Thank you Lord.We are so blessed.

"My" Trip To Bountiful

I discovered about 2 years ago that my landed settler,Thomas Eames, lived and pretty much owned Framingham at one time in history.Framingham is just outside of Boston. So you can imagine what ecstacy I felt when 6 months ago, my daughter's family relocated from Hawaii to Boston..I could just see myself getting my picture beside the Thomas Eames memorial and upon arriving in Framingham ,seeing a sea of family likenesses as I walked down the street.My daughter's last words as we walked out the door"Hope this won't be a trip to Bountiful,a movie where this elderly lady dreams of going back to her home and when she does nothing is as she imagined.
I had also found on the internet that many Ames's were buried in Sudbury..so since I was out that way I prevailed upon my husband to take me first to Sudbury... I found the History Society pretty easily and unfortunately it was closed..so I asked the ladies in the town clerk's office if they had heard of the Eames family name and they were very helpful. In fact we shared some great stories of our geneological jouneys. They kindly directed me to the cemetary,but as I began perusing the various tombstones from every era of our history and every family except Eames or Ames, I've finally come to the conclusion that I am not really a geneologist. I think I need to hire someone for this boring job.
At any rate ,I encouraged my husband to take me on to the promised  land,Framingham. Surely I would find something there...Meanwhile ,we were driving through georgeous fall leaved forests,bejeweled with manicured typically New England homes..which I couldn't fully enjoy becuse I'm looking for road signs and route numbers.
After asking a couple of Framinghamites directions,we found the History Society. It was closed and desolate. there was not a soul in site...Time for a coffeebreak..so we pulled into a minimall bearing a Starbucks sign. Imagine our dismay when we reached the door bearing the message",temporarily closed due to power outages"..Ah.. It's elementary, that's why we will not find much info . I didn't think power outages would effect areas so close to Boston.
Next stop..a barber,surely someone there has heard of our Gandfather Thomas. The man I talked to  kept looking at me quizically..had I really come all the way from Los Angeles for a historical placque...is this woman for real. I tried to ignore the look and asked if he knew any Eames's, he said yes but he didn't elaborate. Funny, this the second time this happened to me. Either they really didn't know them personally or they didn't really care for them.
I will definitely come back to Boston and yes I will make that trip to Framingham again.  The next time I will call ahead and make appointments with the History Society, and pray that there will be no power outages.

Ames Hotel






Ames Hotel, Boston,Mass

  We decided  to take advantage of a relatively pleasant afternoon and visit the Ames Hotel. It was built for offices of the famed Ames Tool company ,who made their initial fortune by coming up with a top notch shovel,just at the beginning of industialization and the expansion west of the United States and right around the Civil War..Only the outside bears any resemblance to it's origins,as it is now a ultra modern boutique hotel inside. I did get an Ames hat,though maybe $20.00 was a bit much for it.



detail of the Ames Building

For those of you who don't know, my maiden name was Ames. These Ames however were another Ames branch,although there is some speculation they may be cousins.My ancestors originated in Framingham and I hope to visit there tomorrow.

One of the period dressed tour guides that you see around the city

We decided to take a stroll down state street and I am including some more beautiful Boston pictures.



the Customs House...until this was built ,the Ames house,built in 1898, was considered the tallest skyscraper in Boston



A park was created in the spot where an elevated road way went through Boston. This roadway was replaced by The Big Dig, a tunnel and a source of great pride and accomplishment for Bostonians. The pillars light up in multi changing colors similar to the columns in LAX

another view of the park