@bluebelle & @2ndfdl ... My forebears crossed with yours! My paternal side is deeply ingrained in the history of this country, tracing back to four different Mayflower passengers - George Soule, Richard Warren, Francis Cooke, and William Brewster. I've discovered generations of military service, back to the Revolutionary War, but struggle with the knowledge that at some point in my family's time in this country, their struggle to survive may have come at the expense of a native population. I take comfort in the fact that they all stayed north, and several fought the south in the Civil War. I've discovered a sliver of Native DNA, as well as Nigerian, through DNA testing; it would be fascinating to know the path the ancestors took to get to this moment. The neighborhood I live in splits land with a tribe neighborhood; I have to hope that my ancestors lived as peacefully with the native population during their time as my family does now.
I too come from John and Priscilla -- that ancestral fan is wide!
I too am about a decade shy of the 400 club.
I use to feel a great deal of pride over that fact, until I understood what that meant for our Native American Indigenous people and for the beautiful land which we forever changed from its original form.
What I do feel connected to and appreciation for is the bravery and strength my forefathers had to journey in wooden ships over great powerful oceans to settle on unfamiliar and unsettled land.
I can at least do that right?
Very, very well said. I am a genealogy aficianado.
My maternal grandmother's line is all Mayflower and shortly-thereafter stuff--- including Salem witches. The original Mayflower immigrants actually did try to coexist fairly with the natives, and of course had no clue about the pandemics they were bringing. (Other immigrants were not always so decent, of course-- and many of us also have those folks in our bloodlines.)
My paternal line ggggrandfather came to North America at age 37 with five kids (ages 2 through 11), a wife and ONE LEG. I mean, wth. How do you even think of leaving everything you've ever known to settle raw, isolated land (which you will lose if you do not "improve" it) under those circumstances? "Brave" does not even cover it.
Another thing we do not often think about is the fact that Every Single Ethnicity/Nationality etc has been oppressed by another at some time in their history and Every One has been an oppressor as well. No one is guiltless by reason of genealogy, nor is any one undeserving of compassion. The past is set. We are who we are, and we are where we are. It is up to us, in the here and now, to make the best "stew" we can out of this melting pot.
And so we have our first Ancestry Match.
WOW!
That is amazing. If your ancestors are with you now watching they must be wearing brilliant smiles.
Okay, my family did not come over on the Mayflower, but my husband's did, he and our kids are descended from two people who came over. My mother-in-law was a history teacher who spent her retirement years meticulously tracking her ancestry and visiting their gravesites. They settled in Rhodes Island and upstate NY.
So, let me get this straight.
@Bluebell
@Karidad
All are descended from the same couple from the Mayflower.
@saibh is descend from 4 others on the Mayflower.
@Jeanne-mayell has a husband and children descended from Mayflower ancestors.
Am I missing anyone??
This is beyond amazing to me. Anyone have an idea on WHY this would be the case? There must be meaning.
Years ago I visited the replica of the Mayflower. That was a small ship. Amazing grit and fortitude your ancestors must have all had.
You need a Zoom cousin/neighbor call together.
If there are any Jamestown descendants let me know. I have a few, including William Starchey who was the Secretary of the Colony in Jamestown for a year and wrote about colony life. He didn't stay however as he felt life was too difficult and went back to England. He was also on board a ship which shipwrecked during a hurricane in Bermuda on his way to Jamestown and wrote about life on the island which became the inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest. Over many months, the survivors built smaller ships to make their way off the island and on to Jamestown.
I can't believe they survived the hurricane and them made it off the island and to their original destination.
Boggles the mind.
So, let me get this straight.
@Bluebell
@Karidad
All are descended from the same couple from the Mayflower.
@saibh is descend from 4 others on the Mayflower.
@Jeanne-mayell has a husband and children descended from Mayflower ancestors.
Am I missing anyone??
@BlueBelle and I are both descended from Peter Bulkeley, a Puritan clergyman who came over in 1635, though I don’t know if she is descended from his first wife or his second. I am descended from his second wife through their son Gershom and grandson Charles.
Priscilla Mullins and Stephen Hopkins were not a couple. I am actually descended from two Plymouth passengers. My father was descended from Stephen Hopkins, who was the head of his family who traveled with his wife and three children (his fourth child, Oceanus Hopkins, was born during the voyage.) Priscilla Mullins was my mother's ancestor. She was 18 and was traveling with her mother, father, and brother. Sadly, they all died in the Winter of 1620-1621, so she was the only survivor. She married John Alden, a crewmember from the Mayflower, and they settled in Plymouth together.
Sorry. I have Plymouth on my mind a lot right now (probably because of Thanksgiving coming up). My sister is a genealogist by hobby and located so much of this information. She has tracked my father's side all the way to the Norman Conquest, and my mother's side to 1048 A.D. And we also sent our DNA off to Ancestry DNA for the fun of it, only to find that our DNA profiles match up almost exactly with her research.
How close? My DNA profile stated that we had a French relative sometime around 300 years ago. This bares out with my sister's research, who learned that we had a ancestor who was an Acadian (a French immigrant who settled in Acadia in Canada in the seventeen hundreds. When the Acadians were expelled by the French and deported on ships back to France around 1758, a small group (my ancestor among them) escaped and traveled down the Mississippi River. We know she eventually made it to Louisiana and settled there. (Note: the Acadians eventually became known as "Cajuns.") So it is good to have confirmation.
So, I guess you can see why I am so passionate about the immigrants' plight, and particularly the children separated from their parents. Their story was literally my ancestor's story of escaping persecution and being separated from loved ones. So I take it personally.
By the way, your connection to Jamestown, the first successful English settlement in America, is awesome! Sadly, we have been unable to locate such a connection in my family tree. But still, that is fantastic, especially as your ancestor helped to act as inspiration for The Tempest.
Saw the thread on genealogy/ancestry. I too am a Mayflower descendent - from Thomas Rogers and Alice Cosford. Thomas traveled with his son Joseph on the Mayflower. Thomas died in 1621 in Plymouth Mass during the first brutal winter there. His other three children stayed in Leiden with their mother. I am descended from his son John, who then also came to Plymouth in 1630.
As a side note, I never would've found this it if it hadn't been for the Ancestry DNA test. I knew my mother's family was old east coast - but kept reaching a dead end with one line. The DNA test confirmed what I thought was the family line, and then as I worked back, made the discovery on the Mayflower connection.
While it is interesting to be a Mayflower descendent, I think I read that there are something like 35 million descendants living today! I have a good friend that is also a Mayflower descendent through Francis Cook.
Fun information!
Interesting article on Mayflower descendent. More of us out there than one would expect!
Are You One of 35 Million Mayflower Descendants? Here’s How to Find Out
@jeanne-mayell my family on my dad’s side has an official book- there were 4 Norman brothers and our branch is descended from Moses Norman (the Normans are descended from William the Conqueror, although I hear that’s not incredibly rare). Dad told me long ago how a genealogist visited his family when he was a child in order to include their family information in his book about the Normans. Long story short, among other interesting ancestors, we are directly descended from William Bradford, who was first governor of Mass and came over on the Mayflower (if I’m recalling correctly without googling it).
@mamaly Like I said, I'm in line from Thomas Rogers, and some Whites who were in the Plymouth Colony. There was a White on the Mayflower, but haven't connected them yet. I've got a Governor, several Ladies and Knights, Freemasons, Native Americans. Luckily the whites that married into the tribe were Quakers. No slaves.
Hi cousin! ? Sorry - I must've missed your post. How cool to find relations here. My Rogers line looks like this...
Thomas Rogers
John Rogers
John Rogers II
Sarah Rogers m. Nathaniel Searle
My mother was a Searle through this line.
Mom's side is pretty much all very early New England colonists, with the except of one Irish line that came over in the early 1800s, right before the famine.
Regards - Mary
No Mayflowers in my lineage known to date. Scottish Highlanders to Georgia and Carolina coasts with some Creek thrown in and then in the 1800's English intermarried with and blended in. Have just begun investigating and tracking with Ancestry. Quite interesting. Did the DNA tests and got results: 40% Scottish 37% England/Northwestern Europe from Wales area the rest are Scandinavian and Native American. Which backs up family stories of some of Scottish ancestors marrying some Creeks early in their arrival/immigration. No known Scandinavians in known family history..that may be Viking remnants supposedly. You can where I got the red hair and freckles from as well as "The Sight" LOL
I have no known links to the Mayflower.
The Harrisons (mom"s maiden) can be traced back to London-7th great grandfather George was born in 1698 and we believe he arrived in Philadelphia in 1729. We can place him & his kids in the same church with George Washington, Betsy Ross, Ben Franklin & other signers of the Declaration of Independence. He's buried within 100 feet of Franklin in the church graveyard. His kids were baptized in the same font as William Penn. His son John resigned his local militia position in the summer of 1776 to become the captain of one of the seafaring vessels fighting for independence. We have the records from the National Archives telling us this, as it and the service of three later generation Harrisons who fought for the Union in the Civil war the following century, were not passed down in tbe family via oral history. It was a surprising find during genealogy research.
What I find highly interesting in this conversation are the number of lightworkers here who are descendents from founding families-especially given the current environment/circumstances. Something tells me it's not a coincidence.
Hi five sis.... No known Mayflower immigres in my lineage either, though the Scottish Highlanders are prevalent. Guess that's where my rebel spirit came from, and 'The Sight' ?
They came through Georgia and thus the Cherokee line is also there ... some were lawyers and breeders of Thoroughbreds, and disenfranchised to walk the Trail of Tears.
My paternal grandmother was also Siouxan and Scot ... she was adopted by a Scottish family, and so, no ancestry records there.
I've never done the Ancestry .com DNA thing, but it is fascinating. One thing I am certain of ... if one's ancestors have been here in this country for centuries, or even by choice in heart more recently, we are All American....
This is a fascinating thread! I am always blown away at people who can trace their lineage back hundreds of years. I am of Ukrainian descent and am only 2nd generation American (father's side) and 3rd generation American (mother's.) I don't know much beyond some names of great-great-grandparents.
Very cool that so many of you have common ancestors from the Mayflower!
Agreed! And continuing that thought, everyone present here from around the world is a global citizen of earth.