When you get to the part in early Jamestowne history where they describe the “starving time”, as well as first and second supply, I realize that it is a miracle that I am here today, being descended from an immigrant from 1st supply.
Even so, there seems to be a slight break in the descent, because that first ancestor seems to have vanished from the record, and his daughter came from England to take over his estate. She married a surviving settler and then died in childbirth. 3 out of 4 settlers died in the first years of Jamestowne settlement, so it is a miracle that there are any descendents at all.
Have you ever visited Jamestown settlement? I did in the summer of 1999 (both Jamestownes — the reconstruction and the original site). Out on the penninsula at the site of the James Fort it was so hot, humid, and insect-ridden that I could not imagine how any of the settlers survived. You coudn’t even breathe. From school we always were taught that the winters killed them off. I think the summers must have been worse. I don’t see how any work could get done.
My youngest is at William and Mary, so we went to Yorktown for the day last month. We will go to Jamestown after the ‘skeeter season is over!