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 Digging Up My Ancestors in Ipswich and Rowley When I got up in the morning, the air was almost as hot and steamy as it had been the previous night when I hopped in the back of my truck and went to bed. I took a quick, cold shower (no jokes, please), which was refreshing, then ate a simple breakfast, packed up my truck and left the Harold Parker campground around 9 a.m. From there I drove a few miles to Ipswich, Massachusetts. Ipswich is a small coastal town about an hour north of Boston and, believe it or not, a place that I'd been wanting to visit for many years.
If you've been following my website, you know that one reason I'm taking this trip around America is to trace my genealogical roots. I wanted to visit Ipswich because I had learned that ancestors on my dad's side, with names like Bradstreet, Chaplin, and Hastings, were among the first white settlers in America. They had emigrated from England to Ipswich in the 1630s, only a few years after the ship Mayflower, carrying the first English settlers bound for New England, had landed at what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.
I discovered these stories about my ancestors while I was still in Portland by using the Mormon's genealogy website, www.FamilySearch.org. While I was doing this research months and years earlier in Portland, my Ipswich ancestors were just names that I saw on my computer screen and didn't really mean anything to me. I came to Ipswich because I was hoping to learn more about these folks. I wanted to know who they were, what they did, and where they had lived, to add meaning and substance to my roots so I could feel a closer connection with them. I figured that I was probably the first person in my immediate family tree to visit Ipswich in over 100 years.
My first stop in Ipswich was at the public library. I wasn't sure if I'd find any information here about my ancestors but if nothing turned up, I was ready to hop onto Interstate 90 that afternoon (the "Mass Pike" I mentioned earlier) and drive the six hours to my brother's house in upstate New York, my next planned stop.
But with the help of a friendly reference librarian named Paula, I found several old books on early Ipswich history and spent the entire afternoon in the archives room, digging up all sorts of information and interesting stories about my ancestors. They included a fellow named Humphrey Bradstreet who, as I learned, was a Puritan aristocrat. Humphrey was one of the first settlers of Ipswich and was from, not surprisingly, the town of Ipswich in eastern England. I also learned about a fellow named Hugh Chaplin, who was a weaver from northern England. Lots of weavers emigrated to colonial America in the 1600s, as I learned, due to an economic downturn in the weaving industry then. Both Humphrey and Hugh, as I learned, came from England to Ipswich in the 1630s. I was fascinated to read about these people and many other ancestors, and I tried to imagine what life must have been like here in colonial Massachusetts back in those days. I can't even imagine how difficult their lives must have been.
After spending several hours in the nice-and-chilly Archives Room, I thanked Paula, left the library, and walked down to the Ipswich marina. I found there, from my research, what I believe is the exact spot where these and other ancestors of mine from England had landed in the New World as they sought a better life and religious freedom (not to mention Happy Meals).
Sitting there at the Ipswich marina and envisioning my nine-times-great-grandfather Humphrey Bradstreet stepping off the ship "Elizabeth" at this spot in 1634 was stirring. After a few minutes of reflection, I walked down and dipped my hand into the water, as I had done the previous day at Walden Pond, to try and reconnect a bit with the past.
Above left: Camping at the very hot and sticky Harold Parker State Park after leaving Walden Pond. This is a typical evening scene: downloading photos while eating Stagg chili and Nacho Doritos. O.K., I'm not a connoisseur. Above right: The next day, I spent four hours in the Ipswich library's archive room and learned a lot about my ancestors. Many thanks to Paula, the Reference Librarian.
Above left: This is the lot in Ipswich that my ancestor Humphrey Bradstreet bought in 1635 (the house was built a few years later). As I learned, these folks were strict Puritans and came to America because, among other things, they didn't think people should be allowed to dance. Gee, maybe that's why I hate to dance. Above right: Visiting Rowley, just north of Ipswich, where I traced more ancestors. Settled in the 1630s, Rowley and Ipswich are two of the oldest cities in America.
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