Jay Dickey gave a presentation to the Nevada Mayflower Society entitled “The 400th Anniversary of the Fortune: The Forgotten Tale of the Second Ship to Arrive at Plymouth.”

President Jay Dickey gave a Zoom lecture to members and guests of the “Genealogy Lab” of the Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada. The TMCC Genealogy Lab hosts weekly Zoom presentations by experts on a wide range of subject matters related to American history and genealogy. Jay’s talk was entitled “Children of the Light: The History and Genealogy of Quakerism in Early America.”

The Forgotten Colony: the 400th Anniversary of the Founding of New Netherland, America’s First “Melting Pot” Today, many Americans consider New York—New York City in particular-- to be a “melting pot,” where different ethnicities and cultures have come together to form a vibrant, diverse community, a center of international commerce and finance, and a welcoming place for immigrants from all the nations of the world. It all started 400 years ago, when a sailing ship carrying a small group of Dutch settlers arrived in North America, traveled up what came to be known as the Hudson River, and established a trading post at today’s Albany New York, following quickly by the settlement of the place they called New Amsterdam, renamed forty years later “New York.” Led by the Dutch West India Company (the “WGC”), over the next two decades thousands of immigrants settled in the region of today’s New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, forming the Dutch Colony of “New Netherland.” Americans today celebrate the nation’s founding colonies of Jamestown and Plymouth, but somehow we’ve forgotten the massively important colony of New Netherland. On January 18, American Heritage Partners hosted a special luncheon featuring guest speaker, Deborah Hamer, the Director of the New Netherland Institute (“NNI”), who shared with us the story of New Netherland. Headquartered in Albany New York, NNI has been engaged over the last few decades in extensive preservation efforts of early Dutch records on a colossal scale. Ms. Hamer provided an overview of the history of New Netherland and shared with us the details of NNI’s efforts to preserve, digitize and translate the extant records of the WGC and other surviving Dutch records related to the history of New Netherland. The large collection of records NNI has already made public has provided critical new information about how the Dutch colony operated, how its people lived their day-to-day lives, how colonial leaders dealt with the indigenous peoples, and how those leaders helped foster the “melting pot” we know of today. This special event was held at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nevada.

AHP hosted an event in Carson City, NV featuring guest Kim Harris, who gave a “chautauqua” performance about the life of Anne Hutchinson, prominent figure in the history of New England who fought for religious freedom in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630’s; for her non-conformism she was banished, and later she and her children were murdered by Indians. The event was co-sponsored by the Nevada Mayflower Society and several other organizations.

Jay Dickey gave a lecture to members of the Nevada State Genealogical Society entitled “The Great Migration: A Brief History of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600's”.

AHP’s Jonathan Dickey gave a Zoom lecture to the Colonial Dames of the Seventeenth Century about one of the seminal events in the history of the Jamestowne Colony, Bacon’s Rebellion. His talk was entitled “Bacon’s Rebellion: The First American Revolution.”

AHP hosted a luncheon featuring Professor Carla Gardina Pestana, Chair of the History Department at UCLA. Professor Pestana discussed her book, “The World of Plymouth Plantation.”

AHP Hosted a luncheon presentation by Dr. Matthew Bowdish, a noted expert in the field of early New England medicine, and the current Surgeon of the California Mayflower Society. Dr. Bowdish discussed the practice of medicine in Plymouth Colony in the 1600’s, and how the Pilgrims coped with a variety of infectious diseases.

AHP hosted the 2nd annual “American Roots Celebration,” held in Fallon, Nevada. The event was co-hosted by six other lineage and historical societies, and featured educational talks on a variety of topics related to American history. The event was attended by over 200 members of the public, and received press coverage in the local news media.

AHP hosted a breakfast even to commemorate the ratification of the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791. At the breakfast, Jay Dickey gave a short talk about the history of the Bill of Rights, and the ratification process.