Society News~Photos
Eighth Annual Meeting
2023
The Descendants of Cape Cod and the Islands
Hyannis, Massachusetts
October 20-22, 2023
Hyannis, Massachusetts
October 20-22, 2023
Seventh Annual Meeting
2022
Our 2022 annual meeting was our first in-person meeting since 2019 on Nantucket
Sixth Annual Meeting
November 14, 2021
Zoom Meeting
Fifth Annual Meeting
2020
Cancelled due to Covid
Fourth Annual Meeting
October 11-13, 2019
Warwick, RI
October 11, 2019
Cocktail Reception hosted by First Families of NY
at the NY Yacht Club in Newport, RI
Cocktail Reception hosted by First Families of NY
at the NY Yacht Club in Newport, RI
Dinner
October 12, 2019
Attendees at Roger Williams National Memorial
Attendees at Roger Williams National Memorial
Third Annual meeting
November 2-4, 2018
Chatham Bars Inn
Chatham, MA
President General & Founder
Shari Kelley Worrell
Shari Kelley Worrell
New board being installed by the
Chaplain Pro Tem, Leslie Reynolds Fowler:
Grace Smith, President General
Sally Hlavay, 1st Vice President General
Kathleen "Kathy" Doherty Kaldis, Recording Secretary General
Sue Gray, Treasurer General
Kimberly Nagy, Registrar General
Lynne Zalesak, Historian General
Chaplain Pro Tem, Leslie Reynolds Fowler:
Grace Smith, President General
Sally Hlavay, 1st Vice President General
Kathleen "Kathy" Doherty Kaldis, Recording Secretary General
Sue Gray, Treasurer General
Kimberly Nagy, Registrar General
Lynne Zalesak, Historian General
Caryn Andrews
Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum, Provincetown, MA
Pilgrim Monument, Provincetown, MA
Russ and Grace Bliss Smith with Grace's cousin, Richard Pickering
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Richard Pickering
Diane Coleman-Horne
Chatham, MA
Provincetown and the Cape from the top of the Pilgrim Monument
Attendees at Winslow’s Tavern, Wellfleet, MA
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2nd Annual Meeting
November 3-5, 2017
Brewster, MA
Speaker Richard Pickering, of Plimouth Plantation
Presenting a $300 donation to the Barnstable Historical Society
Treasurer General, Sue Gray, and Historian General, Karen Miller, drawing the winning “voice” for the beautiful oil painting donated by Karen Miller. The winner is...Leslie Steuben
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Sue Gray, Lucy Loomis, Shari Kelley Worrell
Presenting a donation to the Sturgis Library Deborah Brownell and Gail Thomas
Tim, Tommy and Tonya Finton
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Inaugural Meeting
October 28-30, 2016
Sandwich, MA
Founding Board
Top Row (LtoR): Leslie Steuben, Judy Swan, Sally Hlavay,
Heather Speas, Kimberly Nagy MD, Karen Avery Miller, Sue Gray
Bottom Row (LtoR): Timothy C. Finton, Shari Kelley Worrell, Grace Bliss Smith, Pd.D.
Top Row (LtoR): Leslie Steuben, Judy Swan, Sally Hlavay,
Heather Speas, Kimberly Nagy MD, Karen Avery Miller, Sue Gray
Bottom Row (LtoR): Timothy C. Finton, Shari Kelley Worrell, Grace Bliss Smith, Pd.D.
DCCI ~ In the News
Cape Cod Times
February 14, 2016
By Staff Reporter
Posted Feb 14, 2016 at 2:00 AM Descendants of Cape Cod and the Islands is a genealogical organization created last year to explore Colonial roots in the region. Jonathan Lambert lived in Barnstable and on Martha’s Vineyard from 1657 to 1738. He was part of an expedition to Quebec, and later worked as a carpenter on the island. He was also deaf and mute. Lambert is one of the ancestors touted by members of Descendants of Cape Cod and the Islands, a genealogical organization created last year to explore Colonial roots in the region. Shari Worrell, of Lake Barrington, Illinois, founded the group last year, which has since grown to 115 members, who live in 34 states and three countries. |
“I think it’s important to keep the memories of our ancestors alive, that’s really why most of us join hereditary societies,” said Grace Smith, the 2nd vice president general of the organization. “If we don’t talk about them or honor them, who is going to remember them?”
DCCI’s stated purposes are to recognize and record historical figures of Cape Cod, educate people about the area’s history, and make charitable donations to Cape causes.
It lists hundreds of “qualifying ancestors” on its website, all of whom they say lived on the Cape and Islands in the 17th century.
“In another 200 years, these names will completely disappear if we don’t do anything,” said Smith, who lives near Detroit.
Learn more about Descendants of Cape Cod and the Islands
Member Kathleen Kaldis moved to Yarmouth when she was young. “When I grew up there, everyone was like a 10th-generation Cape Codder, and I didn’t feel part of the club,” said Kaldis, who now lives in Leominster and volunteers as a genealogist for the Daughters of the American Revolution. “Through genealogy, I realized, oh, my friends are actually cousins!”
Kaldis said she has proven her lineage back to John Crowe, one of the founders of Yarmouth.
Potential members have to prove they had an ancestor who lived, worked, owned land or performed civil services on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket or the Elizabeth Islands before Dec. 31, 1699. To do so, they use birth, marriage and death certificates, census records, land grants, and other historical documents.
Many of the founding members got hooked on genealogy the same way: through relatives sharing stories.
“I think my love of family history and ancestry started because I was very close to both of my grandmothers,” said Timothy Finton, the group’s first vice president general.
“I loved hearing the stories they would tell, the oral history. As I became older, I researched a lot of family history,” said Finton, who works on Internet policy for the U.S. State Department.
“It’s probably one subject matter that is as different as possible from Colonial Cape history,” Finton said. “I have a wonderful balance in life, my love for the past but also my involvement in high-tech issues.”
DCCI’s first charity project was raising money by selling postcards of a print by Bev Schreiber, an artist who died in 2014, Worrell said. DCCI raised $250, and voted to donate the money to the preservation of Highland Light in North Truro.
The group is having its first annual weekend meeting October 28-30 at the Dan’l Webster Inn in Sandwich. The event will include a welcome reception, inaugural meetings, tours of Cape locations and a keynote speaker.
Ann Hollingworth wrote in a comment on the group’s Facebook page that she has always been drawn to Cape Cod. “It was a complete surprise to find that my ancestors had lived in the towns I already loved to visit on vacation,” wrote Hollingworth. “I think we are pulled by some magical thread to places where our ancestors lived.”
— Follow Sam Mintz on Twitter: @smintzcct.
DCCI’s stated purposes are to recognize and record historical figures of Cape Cod, educate people about the area’s history, and make charitable donations to Cape causes.
It lists hundreds of “qualifying ancestors” on its website, all of whom they say lived on the Cape and Islands in the 17th century.
“In another 200 years, these names will completely disappear if we don’t do anything,” said Smith, who lives near Detroit.
Learn more about Descendants of Cape Cod and the Islands
Member Kathleen Kaldis moved to Yarmouth when she was young. “When I grew up there, everyone was like a 10th-generation Cape Codder, and I didn’t feel part of the club,” said Kaldis, who now lives in Leominster and volunteers as a genealogist for the Daughters of the American Revolution. “Through genealogy, I realized, oh, my friends are actually cousins!”
Kaldis said she has proven her lineage back to John Crowe, one of the founders of Yarmouth.
Potential members have to prove they had an ancestor who lived, worked, owned land or performed civil services on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket or the Elizabeth Islands before Dec. 31, 1699. To do so, they use birth, marriage and death certificates, census records, land grants, and other historical documents.
Many of the founding members got hooked on genealogy the same way: through relatives sharing stories.
“I think my love of family history and ancestry started because I was very close to both of my grandmothers,” said Timothy Finton, the group’s first vice president general.
“I loved hearing the stories they would tell, the oral history. As I became older, I researched a lot of family history,” said Finton, who works on Internet policy for the U.S. State Department.
“It’s probably one subject matter that is as different as possible from Colonial Cape history,” Finton said. “I have a wonderful balance in life, my love for the past but also my involvement in high-tech issues.”
DCCI’s first charity project was raising money by selling postcards of a print by Bev Schreiber, an artist who died in 2014, Worrell said. DCCI raised $250, and voted to donate the money to the preservation of Highland Light in North Truro.
The group is having its first annual weekend meeting October 28-30 at the Dan’l Webster Inn in Sandwich. The event will include a welcome reception, inaugural meetings, tours of Cape locations and a keynote speaker.
Ann Hollingworth wrote in a comment on the group’s Facebook page that she has always been drawn to Cape Cod. “It was a complete surprise to find that my ancestors had lived in the towns I already loved to visit on vacation,” wrote Hollingworth. “I think we are pulled by some magical thread to places where our ancestors lived.”
— Follow Sam Mintz on Twitter: @smintzcct.
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