The prompt for 52 Ancestors, Week 11 is Flowers, and I don’t have any flower-centric family stories to share. I thought that, instead, I would talk about my Mayflower lines. When DNA testing revealed my maternal grandfather’s paternity, I “lost” some Mayflower ancestors, but 56 lines remain. My Mayflower ancestors are:

• John Alden
• Isaac Allerton 
• Mary (Norris) Allerton
• John Billington
• William Brewster
• Peter Brown
• Francis Cooke
• Stephen Hopkins
• John Howland
• William Mullins
• Joan (Hurst) (Rogers) Tilley
• John Tilley
• Henry Samson
• George Soule
• Myles Standish
• Richard Warren

Maternal Mayflower Lines

When I first started digging into my family history, making connections through old New England ancestors was pretty easy to do. The first Mayflower lines I found were through my Nana, whose mother is Italian, but whose father is a Bartlett. I soon discovered multiple connections through my maternal grandfather, as well. His father was Italian, but his mother had only Massachusetts ancestors.

We have several lines to John Alden, and those lines are doubled because his father-in-law, William Mullin, was also a passenger. The majority of my lines through my mother, however, are through Richard Warren. There are several cousin marriages that made this possible, especially through my Bartletts. We also have a William Brewster line. My only Peter Brown and Francis Cooke lines come through my mother.

There are more potential branches back to the Mayflower here, if my theories about certain brick walls in Plymouth are correct. They would add another 6 or so Richard Warren lines. Of all the Mayflower passengers from whom I descend, the majority of my lines of descent come from Richard Warren, with John Alden as a close second.

My mother’s Mayflower ancestors all remained in Massachusetts, mostly in Plymouth and Norfolk Counties.

Paternal Mayflower Lines

On my father’s side, about half the lines come through his mother and half through his father. My Henry Samson, Myles Standish, Stephen Hopkins, John Billington, Isaac Allerton, and Mary (Norris) Allerton lines are only through my dad. I have several lines through John Alden and Richard Warren through my father, just as I do through my mother. I share William Brewster through my father, as well.

We go back to John Howland through his daughter Hope. All John Howland lines area doubled because his in-laws, John Tilley and Joan Hurst, were also passengers. I also have quite a bit of George Soule here.

Many of my father’s Mayflower lines migrated from Plymouth, Massachusetts to Hancock County, Maine. It wasn’t a surprise to find them through my paternal grandmother, who was a Shaw and whose family mostly stayed in the Middleborough and Carver, Massachusetts areas. It was, however, a surprise when I was working on my grandfather’s side. Our Wood family is from Blue Hill, Maine and we descend from one of the two first settlers, Joseph Wood. However, many descendants of John Howland ended up in Maine, as did descendants of Henry Samson and Myles Standish.

And there you have it. Not the most exciting post, but a little bit about my Mayflower ancestry for 52 Ancestors this week!