Room List

Our approach in this room is different from the rest. Only the first page will have information about the room itself. The other "views" will present different elements of the Priscilla's Progeny Exhibit.

Greetings from AKA President
Linda J. Osborne

We welcome you to the Alden House Historic Site with a very special historic journey through the history of the Alden Kindred of America. Our curator, James Baker, has put together an exhibit that will provide you with a wealth of information on what the Alden Family organization has accomplished through the years. From the 1901 first meeting and incorporation in 1906, which led to the purchase of the "old homestead", he tells the story of the Alden Family up to the present day.

It's a story that begins long before, when the Kindred's "famous ancestors" started it all. Members of the Alden family built, lived in and owned the house for many generations before the Kindred purchased it. It is the only house standing that can claim this Pilgrim Heritage

The Kindred has faced many challenges over the years and continues to do so. We are charged wit the momentous mission of preserving and protecting our precious homestead and carrying on our family's story. There never seems to be enough resources to do this. But the Kindred always manages to find a way, just as our ancestors did when they faced the challenges of arriving in the new land and later settling in Duxbury.

The Alden Family has found its way each and every time, persevering through prosperous and hard times alike. The Alden Kindred will continue to face many challenges in the coming years, and will find a path that will enable the organization to carry on their important mission.

Alden Ancestry: Ties of Blood and Spirit

Genealogy was once of interest primarily to the rich and powerful. Property and authority followed lines of kinship. Family ties were more important for political or economic ambition than kinship sentiment. For ordinary people like those who came to Plymouth Colony, establishing new families in a new land was far more significant that the ancestry they left behind.

In time, American families grew and extended across an expanding nation. Ties that seemed so strong when generations were few and everyone lived in close proximity were dissolved by time and distance. After the American Revolution, people began to glance back and ask, "Who were our ancestors?" The Pilgrims had become the nation's symbolic ancestors, but some thrilled to know they were actual descendants of those now-legendary individuals. John and Priscilla Alden were among the most famous.

The Alden family spread far beyond their progenitor's modest Duxbury farm. In seeking their historic identity, people traced their genealogy and discovered their Alden lineage. But Alden cousins no longer knew each other the way earlier generations had. To remedy this, the heirs to the Alden heritage were called together by Miss Ella Alden in 1901. Thus was born the Alden Kindred of America.