Calif. Families American Colonists Contact
Some of my G-G-G... Grandfathers:
Joseph Cobb my 10-G Grandfather (1599-1633)
In 1613 he came from Amsterdam, the Netherlands to the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia.
He was part of a 2nd wave of settlers, after 80-90% of the first settlers, who came in 1607.
At first At first, Powhatan, leader of a confederation of tribes around the Chesapeake Bay, hoped to absorb the newcomers through hospitality and his offerings of food.
As the colonists searched for instant wealth, they neglected planting corn and other work necessary to make their colony self-sufficient. Powhatan's help probably saved them. However With a drought in 1609 they demanded too much food and relations with Powhatan soured. By 1610 80-90% had died due to starvation and disease.

A 2nd group of settlers in 1613 included a variety of settlers with a variety of skills, including Gentlemen Soldiers, captains and commanders whose experience on the battlefields of Europe prepared them for combat and hardship in America, of which Cobb was one.

George Soule my 8-G Grandfather (1590-167?)
arrived in Plymouth Plantation (It became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) from England on the Mayflower in 1620.

The tides were turned from today. Our ancestors were the immigrants. The residents, the Wampanoag people, welcomed them and taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate indigenous crops and how to fish and hunt in the area.

Wampanoag Alliance:
. Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower's original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from a member of the Abenaki tribe who greeted them in English. Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which endured for more than 50 years and remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans. In November 1621, after the Pilgrims' first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony's Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American's “first Thanksgiving”-although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time-the festival lasted for three days. While no record exists of the first Thanksgiving's exact menu, much of what we know about what happened at the first Thanksgiving comes from Pilgrim chronicler Edward Winslow, who wrote:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."