The annual gathering took place in Williamsburg, Virginia, from May 17 to 19, 2008. There were 77 in attendance aboard the Miss Hampton II for our dinner cruise. We requested that the Captain take us up the James River as that would have been the route our Grandfather Joseph would have taken when he arrived in the 1650s.
Dr. Doug Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution and his wife Susie were with us. Doug shared information he learned about Grandfather Bridger, namely that lead tests have proven that Grandfather had a very large amount of lead in his bones, most likely from eating off metal (pewter, white metal, etc.) plates and using metal eating utensils for so many years. Dr. Owsley said Grandfather also had gout. With that and the lead poisoning, Grandfather was probably not a very happy person in his later years.