The Rye, New Hampshire Quilt Project

Here is a project that I missed hearing about during the COVID pandemic.  If you have ancestors from seacoast New Hampshire this will be of interest to you, too. 

During the pandemic the Rye Historical Society created a virtual exhibit on an 1890s autograph quilt signed by many residents of the town.  This exhibit included the story of the quilt and close up images of the quilt and the autographs. There are 64 individual quilt squares and hundreds of names. 

The Rye Historical Society has built a webpage with a search engine where you can enter your ancestor's surname, and it will find names on the quilt that match your search.  You can also scroll through the blog posts entered weekly starting on 2 September 2020 and view each of the 64 individual quilt squares and read a transcription of the names on that square. If your ancestor or relative's name is on the quilt, the Rye Historical Society wants to hear from you.

Click on this link https://www.ryenhhistoricalsociety.org/rye-family-stories to see if your ancestral name is included on the quilt.  If you find a family name, click on the button at the bottom of the page and enter the information you know about that family member.  

Rye, New Hampshire celebrates its 400th anniversary this year, commemorating the fishing settlement at Odiorne Point founded by David Thompson in 1623.  Rye has a long history, and many of the founding families and their surnames are embroidered on this quilt.  Did you find your family name on the quilt, too? 

For the truly curious:

The Rye, NH Quilt Project website:    https://www.ryenhhistoricalsociety.org/the-quilt-project   

A page with the full list of names on the quilt:   https://www.ryenhhistoricalsociety.org/rye-family-stories 

The Rye, NH Historical Society webpage:   https://www.ryenhhistoricalsociety.org/  

Rye, NH Historical Society Facebook page:   https://www.facebook.com/ryehistoricalsocietynh 

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "The Rye, New Hampshire Quilt Project", Nutfield Genealogy, posted June 6, 2023, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-rye-new-hampshire-quilt-project.html: accessed [access date]).