Wonderful Discoveries in Portland

Dear Diary,

I visited Portland, Maine to continue tracing the Dyer branch of my family and made some wonderful discoveries. First, my 4th great grandfather's house, built it 1803, is still there having survived two great fires, one in 1814 when the British burned Portland during the War of 1812 and again in 1866 when a fire leveled 1,800 homes and businesses in the Old Port. I got up the courage to knock on the door and the people were lovely and gracious and invited me in so I was able to photograph the parlor.

I then went to the Eastern Cemetery to try and find Capt. Dyer's grave. Amazingly, I walked right to it! I was able to photograph that as well. My time was short in the historical society's research library after that but I did find a genealogy of the Dyer family that takes the story all the way back to 1635 in Boston when they first arrived from London and a fascinating story it is.

My 8th great grandmother was a Quaker and she and her husband were expelled from Boston by the Puritan's for their "liberal views". They settled in Rhode Island and help establish the first religiously tolerant colony in America. The story doesn't end well for Mary however. She later returned to Boston and was hung on the Boston Common on June 1, 1660. She had a close association and friendship with Anne Hutchinson who had, in the 1630's, been tried twice for heresy. This didn't sit well with the strict Puritans who controlled Boston at that time and she was condemned to death. Captain Nathaniel was her 4th great grandson.

I was so proud to read of this brave and exceptional woman who was instrumental in the establishment of the first place in America where religious tolerance and absolute freedom of worship were established by law. A very good day!