New York
East Norwich
This is a provisional page, here as a starting point for this family community.
We welcome more details, photographs, history, or even a complete re-write.
And of course
web links to your communities web sites.
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East Norwich, Nassau County, New York State
Population: 2,717
Location: 40º50´48"N 73º32´8"W
 East Norwich is part of the Oyster Bay complex on the North Shore of Long Island. It has a jealously guarded community spirit with its committees for Beautification, its campaign for tidiness and its overall 'Village' atmosphere. A seat of history closely connected with The British in those early independence days ...
Each year more than 200,000 Long Islanders and visitors from near and far participate in the region's largest street festival; a weekend of family fun, food and festivities hosted by the Oyster Bay Chamber of Commerce.
A History of East Norwich.
Originally inhabited by the Matinecock Indians, Oyster Bay was settled and named (primarily due to its abundance of shellfish) by the Dutch in 1615.
 In the 1650's English settlers began arriving and starting communities a few miles inland.
Amongst those who came to these shores were James and George Townsend from Norfolk UK (it is unknown if other Norfolk UK people came with them).
Sometime towards the end of the 17th century, the name Norwich was chosen as the name of a settlement a few miles south of Oyster Bay.
It wasn't until 1862 that the name was changed to East Norwich.
 In Oyster Bay, is the home of the Townsends - Raynham Hall (now a museum), which served as a British headquarters during the Revolutionary War, and can lay claim to a truly historic 'first' - it is the home of America's first documented Valentine.
On February 14 over two hundred years ago, Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe of the Queens Rangers asked Sarah 'Sally' Townsend to "choose me for your Valentine!".
Lisa Cuomo, the Education Coordinator at the museum has been very generous in giving the outlines of history and the remarkable Townsend family history concerning the East Norwich - British connections of the beginning of The United States of America and the pleasant concoction of The Great Chain story.
Of course no history of Oyster Bay would be complete without mentioning that most famous resident, and the only President from Long Island - Theodore Roosevelt, who built Sagamore Hill in Cove Neck in 1885.
Did you know Theodore Roosevelt is the Only President of the U.S. to win both the Medal of Honor and to be awarded a Nobel Prize.
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