May He Rest In Peace

 It's Sunday!

A day of worship although we should be worshiping God in every way, every day.

I thought I'd post a picture of a historic church near where I live. It's St. Luke's in Smithfield, Virginia.

I have been there several times. When I first discovered that church, I felt a connection. Little did I know, at that time, that my 9th great-grandfather was buried in the chancel of that church, in front of the pulpit. 

St. Luke's was built in 1623, making it the oldest church in the state of Virginia and the oldest Gothic church in the United States. My ancestor, Joseph Bridger, was given much acknowledgement for the important contribution he made in completing the Church.

Oh, the story does not end there...

In 2007 descendents of Joseph Bridger gave the Smithsonian permission to unearth some of Bridger's bones in order to study why he may have died.

He was supposedly one of the richest men in Colonial Virginia. So, Joseph (well, at least part of him) traveled to Washington D. C. and he underwent extensive testing. Seems he died of lead poisoning, his body containing 7 times the amount of lead that would have been found in a corpse this day and time. He was rich, he ate off of pewter plates, drank out of pewter mugs and the lead from those articles leaked into his system and killed him.

Joseph bones were brought back to St. Luke's and he was laid to rest where he had always been. 

That's pretty cool, isn't it? Leastwise, I thought so! I'm so proud that so many of my ancestors were involved in the making of this country.