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Greetings! You’re receiving this newly returned newsletter because of our connection to writing, publishing, and interest in knowing a little more about particular stories. If you do not want to receive any more, just send an UNSUBSCRIBE to me. Thanks.
These newsletters will be short ones that you have time to finish without overstaying and sent twice a month, the second and fourth Wednesday. It is aimed toward those who enjoy a story about searching for dead relatives. Along with side stories that come out of writing the book. Also, I’ll come clean and reveal some of the weird experiences I’ve had in finding my ancestors. Sometimes they connected with me! They want their stories told! And sometimes it will be additional information that just couldn’t be squeezed into the book- that’s the other announcement, Leafing the Family Tree, Adventures Galore; Mayflower to the Revolutionary War is finally corrected and released. It’s a different way of remembering and recording family lineage so others may enjoy reading about them.
Many items were left out of Leafing the Family Tree, mainly because there is so much info that it can climb on top of each other. And who wants that! And it’s interesting info, so it’s a shame to just stick in a file somewhere unread. So I’ll be addressing those items and expanding on the original, too.
In the past, I’ve noticed faces glazed over when I started to talk about my fascinating ancestors, (it happens to all us genealogists) so I’ve told their exciting stories, not just boring facts and figures.
Here is an opening story for you~
About those Pilgrims
So it was, that Robert Fuller advised his sons to leave Redenhall (Norfolk, England) and go to Holland rather than live in fear of being abused and thrown into goal for their religious beliefs. He and Sara knew they probably would not see their sons and grandsons alive again. Yet he sacrificed their pleasure placing safety first.
Robert was a highly successful butcher. There was no question of poverty as Robert contributed to the purchase of the sixth of the famous Chimes of Eight Bells in their church.
The Dutch Republic was a great power in the 1600s. Their land mass, that today we refer to as the Netherlands, was small but the network of trading routes they controlled were worldwide and so lucrative to create a powerful empire. The Republic allowed their subjects a complete freedom of religion, science beliefs and expression of the arts. Immigrants were welcomed from Spain, France, Portugal and England. Holland in the early 1600s held a 50% population of immigrants. Plenty of work was available, but the Fullers and many others, weren’t there for the money. They wanted freedoms of choice.
Recently I came across paintings by Pieter De Hooch, a successful contemporary of Jan Vermeer, and known for his finely detailed artwork of Dutch household interiors in the 1600s. I instantly thought of my Fuller ancestors living in Leiden, Holland at the same time. I compared scenes from his paintings to what the pilgrims faced in settling in the new world. Just the danger of sailing across an unknown ocean was fearful. Then they had to face ‘indians’ who were reported in Dutch newspapers as being murderers. They had to build their own homes, community center and church after clearing a wilderness. Yet they left what must have been a fairly comfortable life.
One of the reasons the Dissenters, as Pilgrims were called, did not want to remain in Holland, was seeing their children adapting and growing up as Dutch, not English. Freedom of religion was only part of their vision. They wanted to continue being English.
Be Kind
Arlene ~

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