ABC Wednesday, The letter J

It is time once again for ABC Wednesday Just click on the link to join us or to see other post with the letter J.


And keeping with the theme I want to tell you about one of my favorite places to visit. JAMESTOWN VIRGINIA


Last year my husband and I took a day trip to Historic Jamestown, Virginia. A couple of years ago we went to Jamestown Settlement but I had not been to the historic area since my kids were young and my husband had never been. (Historic Jamestown and Jamestown Settlement are two different places located next to each other)

2007 marked the 400th anniversary celebration. I knew I wanted to visit, but did not want to get caught up with all the tourist. Since my hubby and I both had a day off in the middle of the week, we decided it would be a great time to go. We had a wonderful day walking around.

Although most people think that Jamestown was the first place that the English landed at, it was actually in Virginia Beach at a place now known as Cape Henry and April 26th, 2007 was the 400th anniversary of that landing.

"Here, on the windswept sands, led by their chaplain Reverend Robert Hunt, the colonists must have knelt in prayer giving thanks for this new land and their safe voyage. Now they were ready to follow the company's instructions and push deeper into Virginia and seek a suitable site for settlement."

On May 13th 1607, the group landed in a new site and named it Jamestown in honor of their King, James the 1st and it became the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Join me as we tour Jamestown Virginia and be sure and click on each photo to enlarge them for the full effect


Our first stop was at the Glass House




We were able to view the




Men were there making things just like they did in the orginial house.



There is even a area where you can buy what they make.


From there we drove a short distance to the entrance.

Where you can see the orginial fort


From there we walked around the old church

Inside you can view the orginial bricks. They are kept in glass to preserve them

Outside is a cemetary where some of the orginial settlers are buried


While walking around viewing these graves I felt an overwhelming sadness.
Did you know that only 60 of the original 214 settlers at Jamestown survived.
Amoung those who survived was a man named John Dods. He is listed on the orginial list of settlers and also can be found on the 1624 Census. This name is important to me because he is a direct bloodline to my children, and grandchildren. My ex husband has done extensive research on his side of the family to document this. It was exciting to walk on land that he once walked.
Since Jamestown was established on the banks of the James River


And surrounded by swamps



People had to dig wells





As we passed some of the ruins of the old houses



I couldn't help but wonder what life must have been like. It wasn't until around 1608 that women arrived and families were formed.
Plantations were also established





Trading was done with the local Indians like Pocahontas


and after many years of hard work, our nation was established!

We arrived on a day when ABC News was there doing a document for the 400th anniversary.

We got there just in time to see some of the interviews that were going on.


Jamestown is located on the banks of the beautiful James River and you can tell that one of the camera men was enjoying the day.

We were lucky enough to witness some of the excavations of a new area. They were not sure at the time of the photos if they were digging an old well, but old wells are where most of the artifacts of that time period have been found. They did know that they had found something and we got to watch! It is very delicate work to sift through the layers of dirt in hopes of finding a piece from the original settlement.







First the dirt was put into buckets where it was tagged


Then they are taken to a special area where it is placed a little bit at a time on a screen and washed.



If they find something it is set aside
Depending on what they find some pieces will be taken to another area and cleaned again then later placed in the museum here on the island.

As you can see from the following photos, several pieces of old pottery were found. Just look at that beautiful shade of green. It is hard to imagine this piece is probably 400 years old.

Can you see the tiny beads in the tray? They would have been used for trading with the Indians in the area.

There are some old nails there too. Do you see the bone?

Just take a look at this.

It is an old lock from a ship..What a great find!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed viewing my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them for you. It was a fun day that I will remmeber for a long time. I know everything in the photos did not start with a J, but you can find them all in JAMESTOWN. And don't forget stop by ABC Wednesday. She does not have Mr. Linky this week but if you follow the comments you should be able to visit everyone.