I usually post the books my Genea-Santa brings every Christmas. Again, Santa was very generous and brought me a pile of books to keep me busy while "safe at home" this winter. One book never made it from the North Pole to our home, and has been stuck in a USPS warehouse in New Jersey for several weeks. I'll let Santa's friends, the Three Kings (Los Reyes Magos) deliver it from the warehouse to me in a few days.
I hope you find a few good books in this post for your Santa list next year!
Death of an Empire: The Rise and Murderous Fall of Salem, America's Richest City - I have been looking forward to reading this book ever since my first cousin told me about it last summer. The author, Robert Booth, is a well known maritime historian, and the founder of the online Salem Historical Society. The story of how Salem fell from being one of the richest cities in America is one I know only a little about, so I'm looking anxious to read this book. My ancestors lived through all of this fascinating history!
Forgotten Wolves of Wilkinaland - I've been fascinated by J. C. (Max) Wilkinson's theory for writing this book ever since following him on the Facebook group "Wilkinson Family Lineage". In short, his theory is that Wilkinson is surname based on a place, not a diminutive for "Son of Wilkin" or "Son of Will" or "Son of William". I started this book Christmas night, and it is fascinating! I highly recommend it for anyone with a variation of the name Wilkinson (Wilkerson, Wilkins, Wilkens, Wilkie, etc.).
Mayflower Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth, 1620 - Here is yet another book in Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration series. I already owned his book
The Pilgrim Migration 1620 - 1623, 2004, and this new book was just published this year by NEHGS. This Mayflower book focuses exclusively on the Mayflower passengers, and no other Plymouth settlers, and includes new research. Each passenger has a sketch including a biography with comments and notes by Anderson just like in the other Great Migration books.
This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving - In 2020 I vowed to read more books about the Wampanoag and the other native people of New England. This 2019 book by David J. Silverman was one of the top books recommended to me by Plimoth Plantation staff. I'm looking forward to reading it and learning more from the original people of the land where my ancestors settled and lived with side by side.
In the Shadow of Men: The Lives of Separatist Women - I heard Sue Allan speak about her research on this book last year, and when it was published this year, 2020, I had a hard time getting a copy. The NEHGS bookstore ran out several times! But Genea-Santa came through with a book just in time for Christmas. I have four female ancestors who were passengers on the Mayflower, and I was a tiny bit disappointed to see that none of them had a chapter in this book. But I know Sue is always researching more Pilgrims every year, so perhaps there will be a Volume 2?
Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford: The 400th Anniversary Edition - This new 2020 edition of the famous journal by Bradford was edited by a star studded panel: Kenneth P. Minkema, Francis J. Bremer, and Jeremy Bangs, with an introduction by Paula Peters of the Wampanoags. It was published by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and NEHGS (The New England Historic Genealogical Society). Be aware that there is a second 400th Anniversary Edition of Bradford's Journal published by Plimoth Plantation and the Massachusetts State Library also for this year, 2020. This is the book that Genea-Santa ordered from the museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts that was sent to a warehouse in New Jersey by the USPS and never arrived in Manchester, New Hampshire in time for Christmas. Why own both editions? I'll let you know in a later blog post!
The History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts - this 2014 book edited by John Warner Barber is a new edition of an 1839 book. There is a sketch for every town in Massachusetts that existed at the time of the original book (there were 306 towns then minus the four towns drowned by the Quabbin reservoir and the four towns annexed by Boston, and now there are 351 towns).
The Mayflower Descendant - is the journal from the Massachusetts Mayflower Society published twice a year by the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Anyone can subscribe to this through the NEHGS website, even if you are not a member of the Massachusetts Mayflower. Thank you for renewing my subscription another year, Santa!
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