The 1st Annual Myles Standish Descendants Family Reunion

Yesterday the members of the Society of Myles Standish Descendants held their first family reunion at Plimoth Plantation.  There was a lovely luncheon, raffles, fellowship and fun. Everyone in attendance received a mug and a cupcake with the Society logo (mugs will be on sale at the website soon).  Even my two year old granddaughter had a good time!

Our special guest was "Barbara Standish", the wife of Captain Myles Standish who came to explain the recipes, etiquette, history and stories behind our family style meal. We learned a lot about 17th century dining and family life.

"Barbara" explained that in 1624 napkins were very large (about 3 feet square) and men wore them over the left shoulder during meals.  Women kept them in the lap.  Since there were no forks, polite folks use the forefinger and thumb of the right hand for eating, and wiped their hands on the large napkins.  We were served grapes, cheese, prunes, bread, butter, cucumber sallet, roast turkey with onion sauce, stewed pumpkin and Indian pudding. Our only utensils were a knife and spoon!  The tip of the knife was used to dip into the salt cellar (not the fingers of course!)

Our featured luncheon speaker was the very interesting author and Mayflower expert Caleb Johnson.  He gave an interesting talk on historical trivia about Myles Standish including the identification of the only known painting of Standish, his book collection, and his possible English origins.  On Monday Caleb Johnson is giving a talk at the Mayflower Society Congress in Plymouth on the newly discovered English origins of another Mayflower passenger. I wish I could be there for this announcement!

Caleb Johnson

Society of Myles Standish Descendants:
http://mylesstandishsociety.org/

Society of Myles Standish Descendants Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/MylesStandishSociety/

The Standish Connection on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1031675716847712/

Caleb Johnson's Mayflower website:
http://mayflowerhistory.com/


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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The 1st Annual Myles Standish Descendants Family Reunion", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 11, 2017, (https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-1st-annual-myles-standish.html: accessed [access date]).