Genealogy and Potatoes Redux: In Praise of American Ancestors’ New Family Heritage Experience

The facade of American Ancestors'
about-to-open 
Center for Family History,
Heritage & Culture 

I had the opportunity last week to visit Ryan Woods, the President of American Ancestors, at the organization's home office, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, on Newbury Street in Boston. Ryan and his team are scheduled to cut the ribbon on the new, very cool American Ancestors National Center for Family History, Heritage & Culture at 97 Newbury Street on April 24th. 

This spectacular new center is part of a multi-structure building complex named after American philanthropist and preservationist Thomas Bailey Hagen and Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The center will house the Brim-DeForest Library, R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center, the Brue Family Learning Center, museum store, staff offices, and the Family Heritage Experience—an interactive museum experience that will introduce visitors to the joys and possibilities of family history. 

Acquiring the building next door to NEHGS’s long-time library was an opportunity that first presented itself in 2012, the final year of my term as Chair of the organization. The owner of John Lewis Jewelers paid a visit and led us on a tour. Now, after much planning, fundraising, and hard work, the center has been conceived and is (nearly) completed.

The new entrance to the Center is top left followed clockwise by the facade in 2011, showing the old John Lewis
Jewelers; below, our friends the Kyles admiring the design in 2011, and (bottom right) Ken Burns speaking at the first fundraiser
for the Center that same event and year, 2011.

Ryan was kind enough to take me for a tour and even allowed me to snap a few pictures. I don’t want to (and can’t possibly) give everything away, but the Family Heritage Experience is destined to be a top 10 Trip Advisor recommendation in Boston, something full of fun and interactive activities.

Arrive at the Center and place yourself on the map--where you belong!

Pick a disc, scan the barcode on the back, and get started on your genealogical journey.

The famous, or infamous Shattuck family painting. Like our current administration, if you don't like history, you just make
it disappear. That bush in the middle used to be, well...

As we were talking, Ryan reminded me of a brief talk I gave in 2008 when I was elected Chair. The talk, which I had forgotten, compared genealogy and the potato. Fortunately, I found it buried on this blog. So, I dusted it off and present it here.

I hope it will help you imagine the new Family Heritage Experience as an Idaho Russet potato fired at 117 feet per second through a hose into a finely sharpened grate, coming out the other side in a perfect French fry cut.

Mass Audubon Ocean State Weekend - March 1-2, 2025

I was fortunate to spend the weekend of March 1st and 2nd with a great group of Mass Audubon birders visiting sites throughout Rhode Island. Day one included locations on Aquidneck Island, including Portsmouth, Middletown, and Newport. The Ebird hotspots were Town Pond, Lawton Valley Reservoir, Sisson Pond, and Sandy Point Beach. These sites featured dabbling and diving ducks of all shapes and sizes, fresh and saltwater.

Red-tailed Hawk, Town Pond, Portsmouth, RI

Red-throated Loon, Town Pond, Portsmouth

American Wigeons, Town Pond, Portsmouth

While Aquidneck Island was never attacked during King Philip’s War, our birding adventure brought us near many locations associated with the war.

I Got a Pig: Reflections From the Cutting Edge of Cardiac Innovation [Redux January 2025]

(Source: Heartvalvesurgery.com)

“A cat will look down to a man. A dog will look up to a man. But a pig will look you straight in the eye and see his equal.” -- Winston Churchill

Of all the innovations I've been exposed to through the years, from TempTales and modern air conditioning to cotton gins and Hamilton, the one closest to my heart is the 23MM Epic Supravalve. 

Six months Four years ago today, surgeons at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston cracked open my chest, switched on their magic heart-lung machine, cut out my wonky, calcified aortic valve, and sutured in a new, porcine Epic Supravalve.

In another place or time, I might have received a bovine valve, or even one taken from a cadaver. Was I a little younger, I might have chosen a valve made out of carbon. 

But as it happened, on January 28, 2021, lying on an operating table not far from Fenway Park, I got a pig. I'm delighted to report, after a first year of up-and-down healing, there has been barely an oink. Thank you Beth Israel. Thank you Metoprolol.

Birding the Randall Davey National Audubon Center and Sanctuary: A Haiku Adventure

One of the treats of our Mass Audubon excursion to New Mexico was the opportunity to bird the Randall Davey National Audubon Sanctuary in Santa Fe. It was a chilly day with light snow, but we spotted 14 species, including the Juniper Titmouse, which was new to me. (While I only got a quick look and no picture, the Juniper Titmouse is a drab, plain gray bird whose reputation is its attitude, not its flashy looks.)

Better still, I knew nothing about Randall Davey (1887–1964), an American artist and educator known for his contributions to early 20th-century American art, particularly in painting. Davey is celebrated for his work in portraiture, landscapes, and equestrian scenes. He is also celebrated for fostering a vibrant artistic community, which was key in establishing Santa Fe as an essential hub for artists and creatives in the early 20th century. His works are featured in major collections, including those of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Randall Davey's "Great Big Canvas"

Davey was part of the American Modernist movement and studied under influential artists like Robert Henri, a leader of the Ashcan School. He exhibited widely across the United States. In 1919, Davey settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the historic site of a former mill, which became both his home and studio. This location is the one we birded, the Randall Davey Audubon Center and Sanctuary.

One of the amusing features of this beautiful sanctuary is the so-called Haiku Trail, a series of short poems (not all 5-7-5, however) written by (what appear to be somewhat frustrated) birders like me--trying hard to keep pace with the real birders in our group. 

Some images of our day follow.

A Townsend's Solitaire, a member of the thrush family (think American Robin), braving the snow and cold. John Kirk Townsend (1809-1851) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, and collector. He was a member of the famous Wyeth Expedition to the Pacific Northwest in 1834. 

One of the poems that resonated with me

The Beaver Pond: A Poem About King Philip's War

I was surprised and delighted to receive a note from Benjamin Rozonoyer saying that he had been inspired by King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict to write a poem about the war--"Ponder Assawompset"--in his new collection, The Beaver Pond.

Ben grew up in Boston in a family of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. He received a master's in computational linguistics from Brandeis University and is pursuing a PhD in computer science and machine learning at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He lives with his wife and daughter in Colorado, cultivating poems and taking in local landscapes. 

You can purchase a copy of The Beaver Pond from Darkly Bright Press here. 

You may recall that Assawompsett Pond in modern-day Lakeville is where John Sassamon was allegedly murdered in the winter of 1674/5. The trial, a kind of kangaroo court held in Plymouth, was an event that sparked King Philip's War.

Just south of Assawompsett Pond is the Royal Wampanoag Cemetery, a small, beautiful cemetery that is the final resting place for some of Massasoit's descendants.