On 1 July 1656, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin arrived in Boston from England, entering the Massachusetts Bay Colony through Barbados. It was a long journey for the pair, with Ann Austin leaving behind five children. With them were nearly one hundred books that they were..

The upcoming summer issue of the Mayflower Descendant includes an interesting article by Mark Wentling entitled “Joseph Brownell (1699-ca. 1773) of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and Little Compton, Rhode Island:..

This past May, I taught a class on 18^th century Pennsylvania and highlighted some documents I had discovered for my Pennsylvania ancestors. As I prepared for the..

On 11 October 1776, 23-year-old Jemima Wilkinson lay close to death in her bed in Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island, suffering from a fever, possibly typhus. Much to her family’s relief, instead of dying, she awoke and rose from her bed, alive but forever changed...