Masachusetts Family History Search Begins

Left Maine Thursday, Sep 26th and weaved our way down US Hwy 1 on the way to our next RV Park in Salisbury, Mass.  Here, between Acadia National Park and Portland Oregon, we found the quaint Maine seaside towns we'd been expecting, but not really seeing, all along.  Highlight was Camden, a picturesque town set on a bay with busy fishing harbor, white-washed stately homes, and very nice "old town".  This was a good wrap-up to our Maine adventure for sure.

The drive down to NE Massachusetts was a relatively short drive in terms of RV Cross Country Travel. We left around 7 and arrived before noon at Beach Rose RV Park just a mile or so off Salisbury Beach on the Atlantic Ocean.  Weather was beautiful, blue skies, temps in the 60's, and remained so today.  And we've already done a lot of searching for ancient ancestors in the day and a half (as I write this) we've been in Massachusetts.  My direct ancestor, John Emery, some "gazillionth" great grandfather on my Mother's side, arrived in the Colonies in 1635, and was one of the founding fathers of Newbury, Mass., very near Salisbury, where we are presently staying.  John Emery is the earliest known settler in the Americas in my family tree, his arrival following just 15 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, further south down the coast from Newbury. Today we looked at the town square sitting on land deeded to my ancestor nearly 500 years ago.... and we had to dodge a constant stream of cars to do so; seems as if this ancient settlement sits, today, right next to a busy coastal highway (US Hwy 1A, an offshoot of Hwy 1).

Also, Elaine discovered today, from her own family history search, that one of her ancestors happened to be be in Newbury at about the same time as my John Emery, and it appears the two men, who more than likely knew each other (there weren't many folks back then in the Colonies), may well be buried in the same little cemetery in old town Newbury. Go figure!

Tomorrow it's off to Fall River, a town south of Boston that has a big Portuguese population; that's the other (Ventura) side of my family tree.  Will likely run into some "cousins" I never knew down there; but mostly looking... not for cousins.... but good Portuguese food.

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