Pilgrim descendants to give thanks

Susan McCormack

COSTA MESA -- As families get ready for a traditional turkey dinner and

discuss why they are thankful, a large group of Orange County residents

will meet to celebrate their ancestors: the original pilgrims who arrived

on the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

About 60 members of the Orange County Colony of Mayflower Descendants

will hold their annual “compact day” meeting today at the Holiday Inn on

Bristol Street.

“It has to do with the pilgrims more than anything, to understand what

they went through during that first winter,” Jim Blauer, governor of the

local “colony,” said of the meeting. “For three days, they feasted

because they had made it through the tough time.”

In addition to enjoying turkey with all the trimmings, the pilgrim

descendants will celebrate the Mayflower Compact, a document signed by

the pilgrims to build a colony and form a local government.

The local chapter of the national organization -- which boasts about

26,000 members -- started in 1974, when about a dozen descendants

attended its first meeting in Santa Ana. The local group has since grown

to almost 300 members, all of whom have had to prove their ancestry

through genealogical research, marriage records and other documents.

Blauer said the local group is very active, meeting four times a year,

with some members wearing period clothing. It even has a Web site, which

recalls the history of the chapter and offers merchandise for sale, a

chat room and a photo gallery of historic paintings and homes.

Despite the fun activities, Blauer said the mission of the society is a

serious one: to educate.

“We try to emphasize the difference between the Puritans and the

pilgrims,” he said. “The Puritans were much stricter and much more

difficult to work with. They didn’t like Indians at all.”

Blauer highlights the fact that the first Thanksgiving, held during the

fall of 1621, was a joint event of the pilgrims and the Wampanoag

Indians.

“The pilgrims were very friendly with the Wampanoags,” he said. “They had

a peace treaty that lasted over 50 years. [For Thanksgiving], the chief

brought Indian braves, and they went hunting while the women cooked all

the meals.”

For more information about the Orange County Colony of Mayflower

Descendants, check the Web site at o7 https://www.ocmayflower.org .f7