Welcome To Pilgrims and Pioneers!

After many years of researching my family geneaology I have been lucky enough to discover actual information about my relatives that lived in the Pilgrim Era and the Pioneer Era- while many people also have realtives from those eras- many do not know their names or where they lived- actually seeing the proof in print makes you much more aware of who they really were.
After discovering these relatives it of course made me curious to learn more about the eras that they lived in and what their lives were like as, the history I learned in grade school had long since been forgotten.
I decided to start this blog for others who are also interested in these eras.
Some of the information here will be actual facts about my realtives and some will be information about the eras in general that I have found on the web.
I hope you will enjoy traveling back in time with me!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Dollar Day! Patterns for 1.00!





Today only! All patterns are a dollar!


You will have to order by email to get this special- prairieprim@comcast.net


Instant payments by Paypal only.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Two Sarah's Revisited


Not so long ago I posted pictures of my ggg grandmother Anna's two Sarah's. One of her daughter Sarah and one of her half sister Sarah. In the original photo of her half sister there were two adult women and two children. I assumed that the woman sitting in the front of the photo was her half sister. N ow I am not so sure. It may be the woman standing shown here. I have contacte the owner of the photo but have not gotten a response. If I ever do I will put the right names with the right photos.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Holy Cow and how you can help

A few days ago I reead an article about a venture called Holy Cow. A teacher in the U.S. asked his students to bring donations of money to help purchase a cow- no donation was too small. The cow would be a female who was going to give birth to another female cow. The cow would be sent to a family in an impoverished country for them to use for milk to drink and to make cheese and butter with. These items can be eaten by the family and also sold to improve the families income. When the cow has it's calf it in turn will be purchased to help another family. If they can not raise a cow they will instead be given a dozen chickens. This is a great program and got me thinking. There are so many poor people right here in America that could benefit from this program- but many of them would not live in an area where they could raise a cow. Many of them are forced to frequent food pantries for food. Food pantry are a good thing except they rarely give out dairy items. Many times they give the recipents food boxes that contain macaroni and cheese mixes or boxes of pudding mix. That is all well and good but if the people recieving the food do not have milk or butter or the money to by these items. What good is the macaroni and cheese or the pudding mix? or a cake mix with out eggs? Eating dry macaroni would not be such a good thing. When doing your weekly shopping why not pick up an extra gallon of milk, a dozen eggs or, a pack of margarine quarters and drop it off at a food pantry to help a family have at least one or two good meals and be able to use the food they have recieved from the food pantry. Hunger in America is a bigger problem than you may be aware of as is the number of homeless in America. I recentky read that the homeless population in America now is in the high double digit millions. If you feel that you do not have enough time to make a drop off at the food pantry simlpy use the donation button on the right for homeless prevention as they are both good causes. Help a fellow American- it is priceless.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

1849 Olde Prairie Seed Bag





Wonderfully prim & prairie! and perfect for your Spring decor!


Measures 5 1/2" wide x 6" high. Hand stitched and heavily coffee dyed.


5.00 plus 2.50 shipping


Order by email prairieprim@comcast.net


A Daffodil!!

Some of you may think I am crazy to be so excited over the first daffodil to open this Spring- but the winter was so horrible and long that this is such a welcome sight!


The good news is there are more daffodils to come!!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Some vintage photos



The bottom photo has my gg grandnother, my great grandmother, my grandmother and her sister, and my dad, my uncle and second cousin. ca 1927

The top photo is my great grandfather Will Shere ca 1927

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The California Gold Rush


If you have followed this blog you will know that my ggg grandmother Anna Dickerson's second husband left Illinois tp pursue financial gain in California. He died there in 1850 after contracting chlolera. Here is a little info about the gold rush.
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California.[1] News of the discovery brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.[2] Of the 300,000, approximately half arrived by sea and half came overland.

The gold-seekers, called "Forty-niners" (as a reference to 1849), often faced substantial hardships on the trip. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China. At first, the prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning. More sophisticated methods of gold recovery developed which were later adopted around the world. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, increasing the proportion of gold companies to individual miners. Gold worth tens of billions of today's dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with little more than they had started with.

Prairie Wild Morning Glory

Prairie  Wild Morning Glory

Prairie Phlox

Prairie Phlox

Prairie Sundrops

Prairie Sundrops

The Famous Rock!

The Famous Rock!
Plymouth Rock dated 1620

Plimoth Plantation

Plimoth Plantation
The Village

Plimoth Plantation

Plimoth Plantation
A Keeping Room