The Beehive
"What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore, it knows it's not fooling a soul." ~ Neil Gaiman SAVE THE DATE: JULY 20 21, 2024 Amherstburg Art Crawl at River Bookshop Something lovely has quietly come together over the past 6 months and today I am happy to share it with you here at The Beehive. Many of you know of a little book…
With mild temperatures well into November there is more county driving on the calendar this year. This means more ‘car-conversations’. We talk about the weather, the progress the farmers are making in the fields, the glorious sunshine. And with very little prompting we talk about the past. There are two of us in the car – my mum and myself, but one can easily imagine the voices of long-passed…
Have you ever come across an image that stops you in your tracks? An image that calls out to you in a simple unspoken language – “See...
I like to draw. As a child whenever I left the house, I carried a notebook and pencil. Today in a cardboard box on a shelf in the basement there is a collection of my sketches from the late 1960s. Then it was all about fashion. Long-legged models in bell bottom jeans. Flowers in their hair. In grade school, art and music classes were scheduled once a week. Our teacher was a 23-year-old University…
I carried the remains of Sir John Johnson, last Baronet of New York, to their final resting place. Sir John Johnson died in Montreal in...
“When rebellion reared its hideous head, he was the first to abandon his valuable property, and join the Royal Standard under which he rendered invaluable services to his country.” Montreal Herald, May 20, 1815 The beginnings of the Pastorius family in Philadelphia are well documented. From early days in 1683, the family prospered as sons and daughters married and raised children of their own.…
Six months have passed since we last spoke through The Beehive. Well into the summer of 2020 it became obvious that the Covid-19 pandemic...
A quotation from the Latin of Francis Daniel Pastorius translated by John Greenleaf Whittier in his poem The Pennsylvania Pilgrim (1872) Remember, and wherein we have done well Follow our footsteps, men of coming years! Where we have failed to do Aright, or wisely live, Be warned by us, the better way pursue, And, knowing we were human, even as you, Pity us and forgive! Sometimes in the telling of…
First rule of family history research – Be open-minded. Second rule – Be prepared for anything. Third rule – Bring snacks. Or maybe that last one could be moved up in the list. Some days there are few notable finds and then there may be a day when you come across something like this: Piracy – The following account of a Piracy committed on board the brig Melita, under my command, the public may…
On April 18, 1688 four men carried a petition to the Quaker Germantown Meeting in Pennsylvania.
On the 6th of October 1683, thirteen families numbering thirty-three persons arrived at Philadelphia from Krefeld, Germany. There to greet them was Francis Daniel Pastorius who through negotiations with William Penn had procured a 15,000 acre tract of land in Pennsylvania. Acting as agent for the German Company, in affiliation with a group of Frankfort Pietists, Francis Daniel Pastorius emigrated…
My first encounter with Pastorius family history came in August of 1991 when I received an invitation to attend the 1st Pastorius Family Reunion in Amherstburg, Ontario. A 'Pastorius Clan Certificate' was promised to those in attendance. Who wouldn't want to go? Not only did I learn of the esteemed career of Francis Daniel Pastorius, the founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania (1683), I also heard of…