Twenty one members of the Varnum family imprinted their presence on the New England area in early August. We Varnums are all descendants of George Varnum who immigrated to Ipswich, MA in 1635 and settled a few years later in Dracut, MA.

We are also descendants of Hannah Duston who is well remembered in the Haverhill, MA area due to the statues and monuments erected in her honor. The Indians had kidnapped Hannah and her nurse, killing her week old baby in the process. She has been honored over the years because of her escape (with their hair) from this group of Indians.

Our group visited one of our ancestral homes built in 1809 or earlier and still occupied by James and Verna Varnum in Peacham, VT. We had a wonderful visit with James and Verna as they opened their home and the neighborhood to us. The visit was also was a sad one due to the sudden death of James & Verna's son, Larry who's burial was held the day that most of us arrived. We had the pleasant surprise of being invited to visit the restored home of another ancestor from the same time period.

Not yet satisfied in our quest for connections to our past, we descended on the Boston, MA area and attended the Duston/Dustin (descendants of Hannah Duston) annual meeting held in Haverhill, MA on August 8, 1998. We visited with other members of our family association and visited the Duston statues and monuments and Garrison house in Haverhill.

Some of us had become acquainted over the Internet with Sharon Varnum Sergeant of Waltham, MA who had also been very helpful to us in the organization and details of our trip. We now had the opportunity for us all to get acquainted in person. Sharon came to our motel to visit and went with us on August 10 to the Dracut Historical Society. Many thanks, Sharon for all your help. We enjoyed meeting with you.

Our next move was to search for our roots in the most prominent starting place for the Varnum family in this country, Dracut, MA. We visited the Dracut Historical Society and were hosted by Arthur G (Bud) Paquin (email budp@m1.sprynet.com ). The Society has a really good museum with lots of historical displays of the Dracut area including quite a bit of Varnum history. Bud led us around town to the Varnum Cemetery and a couple of other cemeteries with many Varnum graves, to Varnum Park, and at one point to the corner of Varnum Place and Varnum Avenue.

We made a very short visit to Salem, MA to visit the Higginson Book Company at 104 Washington Street to order additional copies of "The Varnums of Dracutt", a history of the Varnum family in America from 1635 to 1907. This book is an excellent source of our family history information.

We also went to East Greenwich, RI near Providence where we visited the home of Revolutionary Army General James Mitchell Varnum. The home is now restored and maintained as a museum and is owned by the Varnum Continentals, an organization that owns the Varnum Armory. The Varnum Continentals organization provides honor guard, parade and other honor functions dressed in their revolutionary army uniforms. We were not fortunate enough to have found the Varnum continentals serving an honor function. We did get to tour the Varnum Memorial Armory and visit with the Jim Wilson, one of the Continentals and tour the Varnum home.

We finished our Varnum historical tour in Valley Forge, PA with a visit to Varnum Quarters, the headquarters for General James Mitchell Varnum's Rhode Island and Connecticut brigades.

Well, time has run out and we are tired. It is time to go home. We have had a wonderful time and will look forward to another round or searching for our roots.