One of my interests is genealogy. With the help of community efforts
at familysearch.org, I've been able
to map a generalized idea of my ethnic and cultural roots. My offering to
you this Christmas season is a variety of traditional Christmas songs that might have been sung by my ancestors: Early American, Native American, Irish, English, Norman French, Viking, Anglo-Saxon, and Celtic. Between now and Christmas, I'll post one a day, starting with my early American ancestors.
The first of my ancestors to migrate to North America came from England in the early
1600s. The Separatists (who wanted to separate from the Church of England)
migrated in the 1620s and the Puritans (who wanted to purify, i.e. reform, the
Church of England) began arriving in the 1630s. The Separatists did not
acknowledge Christmas, and the Puritans in England banned the singing of
Christmas Carols in 1649. Both groups, however, likely sang from the Geneva
Psalter, which is based on the Book of Psalms. I have no idea what they might
have chosen for the birth of Christ, so I picked one that I liked.
6 comments:
beautiful! Can't wait to hear more.
Barbara, thank you! It's been a very fun series to research.
I will enjoy the music since my ancestry is similar to yours minus the Native Americans. I haven't found one of those in my tree and according to my DNA profile, it isn't likely to happen either. But I have lots of early Americans.
What a wonderful idea! Thanks for sharing Leigh!
Ed, we might be cousins! I feel fortunate that the Cape Cod settlers are so well researched and documented. Some of my other lines, not so much.
Thanks TB!
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