COURT HOUSE — Celebrate Founders’ Days at the Cape May County Museum, Sept. 3-4. Founders’ Days is a recollection of the early days of Cape May County and the families who settled here.
The weekend begins on this afternoon at 2 p.m. with a program by the County Clerk’s Office at the Old Courthouse on Main Street.
County Clerk Rita Fulginiti and Archivist Diana Hevener will display court records from the 18th century and discuss how records were kept in the 1700’s. This will be followed by a reenactment of an actual early court case, demonstrating how the early settlers of Cape May County resolved civil disputes and received justice.
After the court proceedings, the County Clerk will lead a short walking tour of the historic county buildings along Main Street, ending at the Hand-Holmes-Thompson House, ca 1695.
The “Old Time South Jersey Barbecue,” with barbecued chicken, steamed clams; corn on the cob originally scheduled for today will now take place at the Cape May County Museum at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow. There will be a lecture for barbecue attendees on Cape May County’s involvement in the Civil War.
Saturday events start at 8:30 a.m. with a tour of the Fairview Cemetery in Court House. The tour will be led by J.P. Hand who will discuss the early families that are buried there. At 10 a.m. at the county museum, there will be a genealogy workshop with Historical Society genealogist Lois Broomell.
Lectures will take place throughout the day, including “The Dutch in Manhattan and Their Heritage in Cape May County,” “How the Genealogy Records of Cape May, Cumberland and Salem Counties Intermingle” and “In the Beginning, How our Founders Began Governing in Cape May County.”
Also, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be free tours of the Cresse-Holmes House, Young’s barn and the Townsend Carriage Shed, demonstrations of early trades and crafts, traditional music, book signings with Bob Kenselaar, Remembering South Cape May, the South Jersey Town that Vanished Into the Sea, and Jennifer Kopp, Legacies of Cape May: A Time Capsule of the Nation’s Oldest Seashore Resort, informational tables on the Mayflower Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Cape May County Civil War Round Table, local genealogy table and more.
Visitors can shop at the museum—copies of past Blue Books, genealogy books, books on county history, books on early families, early marriages, etc as well as the Museum Gift Shop (Members receive a 10 percent discount). There will be opportunities to view the Museum’s Family Photo collection and order prints of your family’s old photos.
From 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, the Museum will host the Great Genealogy Exchange. Meet under the tents and exchange family tree info with all your long lost cousins and other sundry family members. This is your chance to fill in some gaps or just chat while relaxing at the end of the day. At 5:30 p.m., The “Old Time South Jersey Barbecue,” originally scheduled for Friday will take place.
For more information and to purchase tickets, please call the museum at 609-465-3535 or email to museum@co.cape-may.nj.us.
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Do you think it's appropriate for BLM to call for "Burning down the city" and "Black Vigilantes" because…
