I may have 2 Mayflower ancestors

Question

I am applying to the Mayflower Society.  I seem to be following my maternal side to both Thomas Rogers and Captain John Howland.  Has this happened before?  The lines both start from the same person.  I have Wickham, Evard, Lewis, Lord..to Rogers.  I also have Wickham, Evard, Sharrar, Shurtleff, Elderkin, Denison, Gorham to Howland.  Aside from my birth certificate, my mothers bc, grandmothers bc, I am assuming I need census records, baptismal documents, marriage records and death certificates?  Thanks

Comments

It seems pretty likely to me. A lot of the first few generations of Mayflower and other Puritan settlers intermarried. I think it would be more surprising to be related to only one of the first Puritan settlers at Plymouth.

Answer 1

It is quite possible to have multiple Mayflower ancestors. You will need the best documentation you can find but your local Society is there to help you since you apply through them. Do you have good documentation up to a Silver Book?

Answer 2

There are probably enough documents for Denison, Gotham, and Howland.    So, it depends on what documents you can find for the families that followed. A cousin told me that many years ago he applied to the Mayflower Society, but his application was denied because he didn't have enough records for John Denison's daughter Rebecca. Rebecca married Paul Crandall, which is documented, but there is no birth record for their daughter Sarah, although she had a son named Elisha Denison Sabin and a son named Nathaniel Crandall Sabin. The was even a great-grandson with a middle name of Billings. Sarah Billings was John Denison's last wife. She raised Rebecca Denison. Her daughter was probably named after Sarah Billings. All this circumstantial evidence was not enough to convince the Mayflower Society.