Mayflower Passengers

To see if you're related to a certain passenger, first register for a subscription or free trial. Begin entering your own family tree (to increase your odds of finding a connection, try to enter at least 18 names). Then, click the Family Dashboard tab. Scroll to the Relationship Calculator; choose How is this person [select yourself] Related to this person [select Search by Name and enter the name of the passenger you're looking for]. Our database will churn through hundreds of millions of names and outline the relationship (if it exists).

Mayflower Descendants

So much has been written about the passengers on the Mayflower and their descendants that it is difficult to summarize the findings of others. The Mayflower, apparently one of several by that name, landed in what was to become Plymouth, Massachusetts, in November 1620 with one hundred and two passengers and a crew of about 25 on board - families, single people and servants (one of whom remains unnamed). Crew members had signed a contract that bound them to stay in America with the passengers for one year. There were one or two deaths and one birth on board while they were crossing the Atlantic from Southampton, England. Within a year of landing, half of them had died.

The Mayflower was originally destined to land at the mouth of the Hudson River (then known as Northern Virginia) but was blown off course by winter winds. Passengers and crew spent that first winter on board ship, moving onto shore in March 1621. About half of the passengers were English Separatists or Pilgrims, who were searching for religious freedom. William Bradford, a leading force among the passengers and the first governor of Massachusetts, left the most detailed account of the voyage and early settlement. In May 1621 the Mayflower returned to England with a skeleton crew.

At Thanksgiving every year, we commemorate the survival of these Pilgrims during their first year in America. We watch television shows about the love story of John Alden (the ship's cooper who joined the settlers) and Priscilla Mullins (who came with her parents and brother), yet they were not the only couple to marry and have a family. Many of the passengers came in family groups and others married after arriving. In fact, according to the web site www.themayflowersociety.com, tens of millions Americans today can claim to be descendants of the Mayflower passengers.

Numerous branches of the Mayflower Society and the Society of Mayflower Descendants have been established in nearly every state in the Union, and many web sites have been set up from which you can learn about Mayflower descendants. For example, the web site www.sail1620.org is maintained by the Pennsylvania chapter of the Society of Mayflower Descendants.

No fewer than eight American presidents, and many other famous Americans, can claim to be a Mayflower descendant. Volumes of family histories have been written about all of the Mayflower passengers who survived and procreated. These books are available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and in the Harold B. Lee Library of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, as well, no doubt, as in many other public, university and research libraries. Web sites such as http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/mayflower/genealog.htm and http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Genealogy/famousdescendants.php provide information on descendants of Mayflower passengers. Who knows - there may be many descendants living throughout the world by now!

Some families have legends that their ancestors came on the Mayflower; others have proven it through documentation of original records. Many other Americans do not realize that they are descended from the Pilgrims, as all the survivors came to be known regardless of their reasons for sailing to America. While not necessarily an easy task, it is usually possible for a trained researcher to trace a line backwards through time to the earliest New England settlers, or follow the Mayflower descendant lines forward to our time through the family histories of the settlers that have been written.

An interesting aspect of the interest and respect given to this time period and group of people is the creation of a living village called "Plimoth Plantation", which represents Plymouth colony in 1627. Their web site is www.plimoth.org.

The Mayflower Descendant, a periodical which was in abeyance for many years but now recently recommenced, is available in periodical form as well as a CD. The web site http://www.massmayflower.org/publications/md.htm provides more information and a link to genealogy.com, where you can purchase the CD.

So, if your family history has not yet been traced back to the very first settlers in New England, you may want to do some research and find out if you are descended from the Mayflower settlers.

Genealogical data at OneGreatFamily is contributed by its users from all over the world. Although OneGreatFamily has created technology to help its users qualify and correct data that has been submitted, the accuracy of the data is the responsibility of the users of OneGreatFamily as a whole. OneGreatFamily does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy of the data that has been submitted.