Tuesday, May 05, 2020

Do you have ancestors who came over on the Mayflower?

As I mentioned in my last post, I am directly descended from a family on the Mayflower, the first ship of Pilgrims that landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.  Peregrine White, who was actually born on the Mayflower, is my 11th great grandfather.  I was curious about how many living people are descendants of Peregrine. After a rough calculation, I estimated he has about 500,000 living descendants (about .15% of the U.S. population).  That is a big number, but still not a large percentage of the total U.S. population. 

I then posed another question to Google and found the following article.  How many people are direct descendants from all the passengers on the Mayflower?

https://familyhistorydaily.com/genealogy-help-and-how-to/are-you-one-of-35-million-mayflower-descendants-heres-how-to-find-out/

It looks like there are about 35 million living descendants from immigrants on the Mayflower, which is more than 10% of the U.S. population.  So while it is an interesting bit of trivia to find out that you are descended from someone on the Mayflower, it is not at all an uncommon occurrence.  I find it more interesting to delve into the personal history of my colonial ancestors.  Like, what were the circumstances that lead to their immigration to the New World, and what happened to them after they arrived?  We always read about the history and life trajectory of famous people, but I also want to know about the lives of "everyday" people.

Out of the 130 passengers who came over on the Mayflower, only 51 left descendants.  The article I cited above lists all the names of people you might be related to.  Can anyone else find their descendants on the Mayflower?

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