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I am descended from these folks on my father’s side. I don’t know how they survived, and the generations were certainly compacted in those days with most dying in their 20s.

My first visit to Jamestowne was about 20 years ago in July. I’d gone to VA to welcome a new grandson and took a break from baby duties for a little touring on a hot, July day. It was so miserable out there that I literally couldn’t breather.

As we walked through the reconstructed village and fort I really couldn’t imagine how those early folks could farm and thrive in the heat and humidity and mosquitoes. For the first time the thought crossed my mind that surviving the summer was as much a problem as surviving the winters.

The colony really didn’t thrive until they moved inland to the Williamsburg area.

I learned this week that the “First Supply” was really a first flotilla of 6 ships sent with settlers and supplies. But 3 of the ships were lost, or turned back, in the Azores. The remaining ships arrived with most of the food ruined — so it turned out to be a non-supply. The settlers wer pcking up and ready to leave when the 2nd Supply arrived which saved them after the Starving Time.

My earliest ancestor was on either the 1st, or the 2nd supply, but he died in a few years. His youg daughter came over from England to take possession of his inheritance, married and died in childbirth. Somehow, we’ve hung on ever since. LOL.

According to a genealogist, I have an ancestor who came on the Mayflower too. Not sure I believe that but yes, they had it tough. But so did my later ancestors who traveled to east Texas in the 1820’s on foot and by wagon.
Talk about heat and mosquitoes!

We are all so spoiled with air conditioning, cell phones, dishwashers and vehicles, it is hard to imagine how our ancestors made it.

I am so thankful to have been born when I was. Today is the day to say it!

I thought this was an excellent, excellent movie.
Check it out if you’ve not seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-zMIgxbmnA

BTW - My historical father (surname Beaufort) was born in the same year, the same town where Pocahontas died - Gravesend, Kent, England. He came to America in 1635 on the ship Elizabeth and settled in Lancaster County, VA. His (Jamestown) father-in-law gave him and his new bride a 1,000 acre spread on the rappahannock river. Daddy-in-law must have been very well connected with the powers that be back in England.