Thanksgiving is this week. You have probably seen decorations that look like pilgrims and Native Americans in every store you’ve shopped at recently. This month, many elementary school students were taught lessons that involve some version of what the “First Thanksgiving” was like. Imagine discovering that you had ancestors who were pilgrims, and that you also had ancestors who were Native Americans! This is exactly what happened for one woman.
There has been some debate about the accuracy of the story of the “First Thanksgiving” that is generally presented in public schools. Homeschoolers have a lot more control about what, exactly, they want to include in a lesson plan about Thanksgiving. In general, we know that there were pilgrims, and that there were Native Americans involved in some way. Hence, the multitude of Thanksgiving decorations that depict drawings of pilgrims and Native Americans. Oh, and don’t forget the turkeys!
Imagine, finding out that your family tree includes both pilgrims and Native Americans from around the time of the first Thanksgiving. Genealogy researchers from GeneTree.com found that a former dance instructor named Lindsy Stewart Cieslewicz has both in her family tree. GeneTree used genetic testing to help make these discoveries. She donated a blood sample and a pedigree chart a research project when she was a university student.
The results? She is the tenth great granddaughter to William Bradford. He was a pilgrim leader, who wrote many books, including one called “Of Plymouth Plantation”. He also served as the Massachusetts colony’s governor for 30 years. Lindsy is also the eight great granddaughter of William Austen, who was raised by Native Americans after being captured as a young boy. He grew up to marry a Wampanoag woman. They think that this woman was a descendant of Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe at the time of the “First Thanksgiving”. William Bradford was one of the pilgrims who also attended what became the holiday we celebrate today. It’s not often that one learns that her ancestors were at the “First Thanksgiving”, but on opposite sides of the table.
Image by Wish Upon A Cupcake on Flickr