Question of the Week: Do you have any ancestors who were on the Mayflower or who were Puritans?

Question

Do you have Mayflower passengers or Puritans in your family tree? Tell us below. You might also answer on social media by sharing the question image with friends and family.

If you don't know, click "Relationships" on your profile pull-down menu and scroll to the Mayflower Passengers section.

And be sure to check out WikiTree's Mayflower and Puritan Great Migration projects.

Comments

I don’t have any puritans that I know of but many Quakers

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I have three ancestral lines to Hope Howland and John Chipman through their daughters Hannah (Chipman) Huckins and Ruth (Chipman) Crocker.

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Hello all, I am a descendant of Stephen Hopkins (Mayflower Rock Star!) both children Constance and Giles, along with Francis and Hester Cooke, Richard and Elizabeth Warren, and William Brewster. Edward Winslow is a great uncle.

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Yes, one (Richard Warren) whose descendants I know about and another possible (Chilton) whom I have not studied.  Probably more as I have many New England branches to my family tree.

I have one branch of my family that left Massachusetts for Rhode Island to get away from the Puritans.  Anyone interested in women's rights should take a close look at Massachusetts v. Rhode Island in the mid to late 17th Century in that respect.  I recall reading (no source just now) that c. 1690 Rhode Island was the only place on the face of the earth in which women had something close to the rights they have in 21st C. America.

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I'm also a descendant of Stephen Hopkins, his daughter Constance, and her daughter, Mary.

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I have many Quakers (Blackburns) and Puritans too!! Who were your Quakers?

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My Quakers arrived in Pennsylvania with William Penn.  They are Heacocks, Sharples, Pyles, Lewis, Taylor & John.

My Puritan ancestors were Bradleys, who first arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635.  They settled in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

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Blackburn family here

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Yes, Five, Three signed Compact. John Chilton, his wife & Daughter, Mary, Francis Eaton & Francis Cooke. (& a wife of Cooke or Eaton, can't remember which)

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Well we are closely related then. My GG Francis Cooke as well. There are so many great family one never knows where to start. On my Mothers side are Ellis,Swift,Washburn,Willmarth and Mitchell’s   Also have to research Tilly and Howland. It is an endless task!!

Jan

Answer 1

Resolved White and parents, William White and Susanna, are my Mayflower ancestors. I have many PGM ancestors... so far have identified about 50 of them.

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I also have ancestors related to Susanne White. When my great grandmother told us kids one day back in the late 60‘s that her family came over on the Mayflower, were all ears. Later on in life long after she departed, I thought that it was all "old folks tales" until after digging into our past. That was when I discovered the link to the Mayflower which also branched off to the Salem Witch Trials.

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John, I had to laugh out loud when I got your response because when I was growing up, in the 40's and 50's, my dad used to tell us that we came over in a rowboat following the Mayflower! We just took it as a joke. Several decades later, working with Family Tree Maker, I found Robert Harrington and Susanna George who were early immigrants to Massachusetts; then Nathaniel Tilden and Lydia Huckstep on my mom's side. Since then, I have found many PGM ancestors on both sides of my family as well as the Mayflower link.  Aren't Wikitree connections just the greatest?!

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It gets even better. My grandma from my mothers side said that her family (Grimm), are related to the brothers Grimm. By research on this one brother never married while the other one had over 12 children; some not named. I know her fathers name and grandfathers name but can’t find the link to anyone. Perhaps it’s all nothing but a fairy tale.

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Too funnny! Not so "grim" as the Salem witch trials, although some of those fairy tales are pretty creepy. I have an in-law who was one of the first 5 women tried and executed in Salem- Elizabeth Jackson How(e) was an ancestor's sister-in-law. HIghly recommended- Stacy Schiff's book, The Witches, Salem, 1692, pub, 2015. She is a Pulitzer prize winner and the book really goes deeply into the 'dark' life style of that period. Of course, the standard go-to book has been The Devil in Massachusetts by Marion Starkey, which was written ages ago.

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Hell-o,My name is Jane Marie Hoon. Henry Martin Hoon(1833-1896)is my 2x grandfather.His wife was Mary White(1842-1932). Her father,Alfred M. White,is a decendant of pilgrim William White. It continues back to the first White(explorer with Sir Walter Raleigh) and a famous colonial artist,John White.(you can google and see his paintings of Native Americans,landscapes,etc.)Virginia Dare is grand daughter to an early William White.(son or grandson of John White?)Nice to meet you. I am a guest on WikiTree.

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Experience Mitchell was my ancestor grandfather and Jane Cooke

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My 2nd great grandfather claims to have an ancestor accused of witchcraft. I'm still looking on a connection. It would have been started on the Ramsaur tree

Answer 2

I have eight Mayflower ancestors in my tree, one of which is GSMD certified (not spending the money for the rest).  So disappointed that the celebrations in Plymouth were cancelled due to COVID. My family was going to make a trip up for the 400th celebration events.

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Next year!  If it helps you, I got to see the launch of the repaired/refurbished Mayflower II from Mystic, CT, this September.  It was splendid!  Jane

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I was too!  I watched some wonderful documentaries on YouTube though. Really enjoyed them.

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James Chilton was my 11th GGF and Mary Chilton is my 12th. IFI didn’t get that turned around.

Answer 3

97 multi-great grandparents so far identified who were part of the Puritan Great Migration.

Answer 4

I used the Ancestor Listmaker 15 generations back and found 14 Mayflower Ancestors and 471 PGM ancestors. My Parents are both from long time Vermont Families.

Comments

What is the Ancestor Listmaker and how is it used, please?

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https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/ashley1950/ancestorexplorer/

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We share Hopkins, Fisher, Cooke and Doty via our common ancestor, Emily (Morse) Porter.  We are fourth cousins.  I sent you a picture of her with her adult children.  I went to Ancestor Explorer to compare our Degory Priest lineages and we are related but through different daughters, so all the way back to Degory Priest.

Wikitree is a great way to meet your cousins!

Answer 5

Purtians? Yes. Tons. Anyone wanna borrow one? I'm sure they're all wholesome. =)

Mayflower? Nope. I thought I had one but the line was erroneous. Ah well.

Comments

It took about 40 years for my father and I to find the Mayflower connection. You may still find the connection tucked away.

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We'll see. With my luck, the guy was probably hanging on the portside of the Mayflower....the steerage was full. =)

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I learned that the Puritans were anything but a joyless people last Fall. I have a feeling convincing anyone of that will be a fool's errand, but it was interesting to me. I was studying for Ministry in University when I became disabled and my life changed enormously over night. People often  assumed before actually meeting me that I would be .... well, a Puritan. Which was weird as I was considered a heretic by people who think women don't belong in ministry. So I have a bit of empathy for these people.

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Hi Chris Ferralolo, 

Don't laugh, about hanging off the side of the Mayflower. John Howland famously fell off. After that, the sailors were pretty testy about any other passengers coming up to the deck. https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/who-were-the-pilgrims/2020/february/john-howland/

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My ancestry

Answer 6

just in time for this  see https://www.americanancestors.org/index.aspx

Answer 7

I think fastest way to find the WikiTree information is Chase Ashley's Ancestor Listmaker, which shows that I have 15 ancestors who were passengers on the Mayflower. I count them in 7 family groups: Billington, Brewster, Browne, Fuller, Hopkins, Howland and Tilley.  

The Ancestor Listmaker also shows that I have 389 ancestors whose profiles show the Puritan Great Migration template. I consider it an estimate, as they're constantly being added to and pruned out on WikiTree, but I'm working on a (smaller) inventory of the ones that can be genealogically defined.

I'm not alone, like William Pease in Vermont, there is a pocket of Puritan and Mayflower descendants in the south shore of Nova Scotia, which I call home.

Comments

77 PGM, 0 Mayflower. My entire known ancestry was in North America pre-Revolutionary War except for maybe 1.

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A friend is descended from John Howland.

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Holy cow, amazing! Thank you for the link...89 people on the list, not including Thomas Bradford, a dissenter who went to Rhode Island and whom I've not connected yet.

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I am descended from William Bradford. 13 degrees.  Never knew before.

Answer 8

Quite a few Puritans on my mom's dad's side of the family.  She has two lines of descent from James Chilton.

Comments

My daughter-in-law is descended from Mary Chilton, supposedly the first woman to step ashore.

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My mom descends from Mary's older sister, Isabella.

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Mary Chilton is (apparently) my 10th GG.  The line goes her daughter, Mary Winslow, to Desire Gray, to  Icabod Southworth, and Priscilla Southworth and keeps going.

Answer 9

William Brewster is my 10th G Grandfather.  William was one of the original members of the separatist congregation at Scrooby which became the nucleus of the Pilgrim church.  In 1608, William emigrated with the separatists to Amsterdam, later removing to Leiden in 1609.  In 1617 and 1619, William traveled back to England to negotiate for permission for the congregation to settle in Virginia. William's influence was instrumental in winning the approval of the Virginia Company for the proposal to resettle the congregation in America, and he was one of the few original Scrooby separatists who made the voyage. As there was no minister at the Plymouth church for many years, William Brewster, as lay leader of the Pilgrim church, conducted services regularly for the congregation.  Elder William Brewster died on 10 April 1644,at Duxbury.

Comments

I too have William Brewster in my tree, thru his daughter Patience Love Brewster. He too is my 10th G Grandfather.

She married Thomas Prence who came to Plymouth Colony on the ship Fortune in November 1621.  

In 1634, Prence was elected governor, and for the rest of his life he played a role in the colony's governance.

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Well met, Cousin!  

William's son Jonathan is my 9G Grandfather.

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Hi   Dorothy

we are 9th cousins

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Looking at my family tree and DNA matches I seem to have a very long line of religious leaders going from reverends to archbishops. The names I have that share my dna one way or another are Brewster, Treat, Freeman, Tilly, Cooper, White and Alderton, They dont seem to be direct ancestors but cousins, My geographical DNA comes from Devon, Cornwall, Cumbria, Midlands London, The South and South East , Yorkshire and the North, I know some of the settlers came from Devon such as the Treats who are related to President Bush like myself who in turn is also related to King Edward III like myself. Through genetic and family tree investigations I have discovered that everybody is related to everybody some where down the line which means that we really are one big family.

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i seem to have any direct ancestors but a very great number of cousins including William Brewster , the Freemans, the Tillys, the Snows, the Whites and who lot more that I cant remember now, I also have a lot of DNA matches from cousins in the South and North of Holland and also South Holland in my modern DNA which makes me think that maybe some married with the Dutch, ( just a theory), My great grandmother was from Harwich England where the Mayflower was built but further back my ancestors were from Devon, Cornwall , Yorkshire , The North, Kent and London.

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I am a descendant of William Brewster.  Caroline Amelia Brewster was my great grandmother and a direct descendant of William Brewster.

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I have Elder William Brewster as a Mayflower ancestor which is interesting since I am an ordained clergyman in the United Church of Christ. One of it's founding denominations was the Congregational Church which would have been very familiar to the separatists.

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My descendants

Answer 10

Very rare on my family tree.  I have no Mayflower ancestry and I believe just one Puritan from Massachusetts, Edward Riggs.

Answer 11

23 direct ancestors were in the Great Puritan Migration, but not one that was aboard the Mayflower.

Answer 12

My ancestors include Stephen Hopkins two children: Elizabeth and Constance.

Both came over on the Mayflower.

I became a member in February 2020.

Answer 13

My grandmother's . . . great-grandfather's . . . mother's. . . mother, Freelove Wilbur, was a Mayflower descendant. It took me a while to realize that I am a Mayflower descendant too!

Answer 14

My son, George Bell & grandchildren, Jack & Emmalee Bell just became MayflowerSociety members in October.

Stephen Hopkins, daughter, Constance

Answer 15

Yes. lots of Puritans in the south west of England. Also Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, and other Dissenters.  In the latter part of the 17th century, there were so many Nonconformists in Bridport (Dorset) that it became impractical to try to enforce the law that said officeholders needed to be CoE.

My nth g-grandfather went to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 1630s, making him part of the PGM, but he and his family returned to England about 1650.

Answer 16

William and Mary Brewster are my 11th Great Grandparents.

Comments

I am related to William Brewster thru his daughter Patience Love.  He is my 10th G Grandfather.

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Hello, Cousin!

William and Mary are my 10G Grandparents via their son Jonathan.

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Make that hello cousins!

William and Mary Brewster are my 10th GGrandparents as well... which makes us 11th cousins!

Answer 17

I have a few: Francis Cooke, Edward Doty Sr., Elizabeth Fisher, Constance Hopkins, Stephen Hopkins, Joseph Rogers, Thomas Rogers. Since virtually none of my ancestors left the area in the 350 years following the arrival of the Mayflower, the odds rise that descendants will find each other in marriage. Then the PGM ancestors - so far I'm aware of 335 of them, and still more research is ongoing. (Thank you Chase for making it SO easy to identify and count them!)

It is a shame that the 400 celebrations have been cancelled.

Comments

I have Stephen Hopkins, Constance (& son Oceanus, born on ship).  Also have John Alden.  The book 'Mayflower', by Nathaniel Philbrick, mentions the 3 Hopkins names.

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great answer -we had stories of baby born now we know family thankyou

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I am directly related to both Thomas and Joseph Rogers (GSMD cert). The lineage goes from Thomas (all last names Rogers), Joseph, James, James, James, Jonathan,Timothy, Albert Cobb Rogers, Timothy Otis Rogers,Fred Kimball Rogers, Otis Wendell Rogers, Frederick Wendell Rogers (me).Listmaker reveals that I also share lineage with: Brewster, Constance Hopkins, Giles Hopkins, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland,Joan Hurst, Both Thomas and Joseph Rogers of course, Elizabeth Tilley, and Mary Brewster. For some there are multiple lines . I would enjoy hearing from other cousins.

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Pretty much the same here. Five direct lines going back to the 1600’s, including numerous Mayflower passengers and ones that settled mostly along the south shore of Mass coast. I have some in Boston and north of there as well as Rhode Island. Hopefully, my children and grandchildren will stay true to our strong New England roots and continue the lines. :)

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Yes, I am descended through Francis Cooke, though I find Hester Mahieu and her French Protestant family quite fascinating.

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Hi cousins

Answer 18

I used the ancester listmaker, 20 generations back and found 3 mayflower ancesters Samuel Fuller and his parents Edward and Unknown.  PGM Listed 94 unique and 9 duplicate ancesters.

Answer 19

Ooodles and Ooodles of ancestors who came during the Puritan Great Migration. Many others who don't quite fit but are close. So far I've only got one Mayflower ancestor, George Soule

Comments

My daughter-in-law is descended from Mary Chilton who later married John Winslow.

A friend is descended from John Howland.

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Pretty sure I can also claim George Soule.

Answer 20

I have 12 direct confident ancestors on WikiTree who were Mayflower passengers (click name for relationship trail).

• great grandfathers:
  • two 8th 
    • Samuel Fuller, Sr. 
    • Samuel Eaton
  • four 9th
    • Francis Billington
    • Francis Cooke
    • Edward Doty
    • Francis Eaton
  • two 10th
    • John Billington
    • James Chilton
• great grandmothers:
  • two 9th
    • Mary Chilton
    • Sarah Eaton
  • two 10th
    • Mrs. James Chilton
    • Mrs. Elinor Billington

My niece has 17 Mayflower passengers, including all of the above plus:

• John Alden
• Priscilla Mullins
• William Mullins
• Mrs. Alice Mullins
• George Soule Sr.

I agree, Laurie, Chase Ashley's app showed me how I had two direct lines to an an ancestor where I had only seen one before.   

His app says that I have 145 ancestors within 20 generations who meet the Puritan Great Migration list criteria.

(edited to add Puritan ancestors count and my niece's additional passenger links).