By 1621, the Pilgrims survived the winter and were at peace with the Indians. Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to celebrate their success, that would be shared by all colonists and their Indian neighbors. Having an annual thanksgiving after the harvest became a custom that continued for many years. Abraham Lincoln was the first President to recognize a National Thanksgiving. In 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for the observance of the last Thursday of November as a national holiday. However, in 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt decreed that the holiday should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month.
On November 20, 2007, President George W. Bush granted a "pardon" to two turkeys, named May and Flower, at the 60th annual National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation, held in the Rose Garden at the White House. The two turkeys were flown to Orlando, Florida, where they served as honorary grand marshals for the Disney World Thanksgiving Parade. The current tradition of presidential turkey pardons began in 1947, under Harry Truman, but the practice is said to have informally begun with Abraham Lincoln, who granted a pardon to his son Tad's pet turkey. In this morning's newspaper, I read that the President pardoned a 45-pound turkey named "Pumpkin."
Part of the above from History.Com - http://www.history.com/
On behalf of the Tri-State Genealogical Society, have a very Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving!
John G. West, TSGS President
STAYING AFLOAT IN THE GENE POOL -
Genetic DNA News
11/12/08 - New York Post: DNA testing is the rage among Latinos: the latest social networking is not on Facebook or MySpace, it's DNA-testing.
On November 20, 2007, President George W. Bush granted a "pardon" to two turkeys, named May and Flower, at the 60th annual National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation, held in the Rose Garden at the White House. The two turkeys were flown to Orlando, Florida, where they served as honorary grand marshals for the Disney World Thanksgiving Parade. The current tradition of presidential turkey pardons began in 1947, under Harry Truman, but the practice is said to have informally begun with Abraham Lincoln, who granted a pardon to his son Tad's pet turkey. In this morning's newspaper, I read that the President pardoned a 45-pound turkey named "Pumpkin."
Part of the above from History.Com - http://www.history.com/
On behalf of the Tri-State Genealogical Society, have a very Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving!
John G. West, TSGS President
STAYING AFLOAT IN THE GENE POOL -
Genetic DNA News
11/12/08 - New York Post: DNA testing is the rage among Latinos: the latest social networking is not on Facebook or MySpace, it's DNA-testing.
As of November 27, 2008, Family Tree DNA hits new milestones with 140,809 records in their database of Y-DNA results with 5,132 Surname Projects, which include 85254 unique surnames. And, their mtDNA database has 80,449 results. I want to put this into perspective, the average Surname Project has 25 participants, of course there are many projects with only one or two test results since the project is new or few have taking the test. Some projects are huge with as many as 4,000 participants. The WEST Surname Project has 176 test results.
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