In 1940, Encyclopaedia Britannica Films created an educational film that shows the life of the early settlers of Naumkeag, a village that later was renamed to Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the lifestyles of 1626 through 1629. This video is now available online and certainly will interest anyone who had ancestors most anywhere in New England. You can see how your ancestors lived.
The film is rather amateurish, and the announcer sounds like he also recorded newsreels in World War II. However, listen closely when the actors start speaking. I suspect their accents are rather accurate. At least, they sound "normal" to me, and I was raised in Maine where the accents haven't changed all that much since the early 1600s!
The video does seem to end abruptly. Apparently, the last bit of film was not digitized.
You can watch this video on the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details.php?identifier=EarlySet1940&newflash=1 or else click on the icon below.
