Mayflower 400 years: How many people are related to the Mayflower pilgrims?

[Michie]

Just over four centuries ago, the ship The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth in the UK to the shores of America, carrying with it a group of travellers who would go down in history. For some, these 17th Century "pilgrim fathers" are also real-life ancestors. But for how many?

There are a few estimates out there, all of them quite high. According to the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, there are "35 million Mayflower descendants in the world".

And while many Americans are proud to be recent arrivals or second-generation immigrants, making the nation a unique blend of cultures, for others there's an incentive to claim ancestry to these early European arrivals.

Dr Lauren Working, an American historian at the University of Oxford, believes there's an almost aristocratic prestige attached to tracing your family back to the Mayflower.

"It continues to give people a sense of the authority of shared connections with the past. There are so many jokes about America being so young and not really having much of a history.

"And so I think that the Mayflower is something that people can kind of latch on to to give themselves a sense of grounding rather than everyone seeing themselves as migrants or as refugees, as travellers.'


So can the 35 million number really be true? Or might it be inflated by some wishful thinking?

Continued below.
Mayflower 400 years: How many people are related to the Mayflower pilgrims?

 

[Sabertooth]

35 million...!?
Did they count Freddy...?

 

[Mayflower1]

I always admired the pilgrims and the journey they made in pursuit of worshipping God freely. The voyage they made then, wasn't the same as now. People died along the way. They took a leap of faith and boldly sailed until they found Plymouth Rock.

People think my username is the flower, but originally this was the idea that came to my mind. This ship. I never traced my ancestory. My mother told me something about the great potato famine and ancestors coming over from Ireland/Scotland from that. But I just admire the pilgrims' faith and the voyage of the Mayflower. I feel like I am on a voyage too worshipping God in spirit and in Truth. The pilgrims were responsible for the first Thanksgiving with the Native Americans also. Just different things.

I don't have to be related to admire the story. It is just awesome history.

 

[Hank77]

My great-great-grandfather family had been traced back to the early 1600s in MA. I never thought about them being on the Mayflower but it's possible I suppose. There is probably a surviving roster of all the passengers.

When I was in the 5th grade we took a field trip to Plymouth. I still have photos that I took with my new Brownie camera. One picture is of the Mayflower in a bottle. I remember being fascinated and wondering just how they built it in there.

 

[Wolseley]

None of my people entered this country until right after the Civil War---1866 and 1867. Both my maternal and paternal lines came to Canada first, and then to the US. Originally, my father's people were three lines that converged: the English line came from Manchester; the Irish line from County Kildare; and the Scots line from the Isle of Skye. My mother's people all came from Alsace-Lorraine in Germany.

So, I guess I can't make any claims to being a Mayflower descendant, LOL!

 

[Hank77]

My mother's people all came from Alsace-Lorraine in Germany.

My spouse's family comes from the same area.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

My People came from Cork , Kerry and Galway. My Great grandfather on my mothers side came from Cork to New York city then on to Cambridge Ma then to Boston. He married a girl from Cork, divorced her then met another girl from Cork in NYC. My father side is a little tougher but I know they came from Galway and Kerry. Some also came from Prince Edward Island Canada via Ireland.



My brother married a girl though who belongs to the Mayflower socciety. The Mayflower Society

 

[BrAndreyu]

None of my ancestors came to this country until after the Communist revolution and expansion of the Soviet Union into Ukraine. They fled the commies on foot until they got to France and sailed over to Ellis Island from there circa 1927. There is a reason why I hate communists and communism, it's not just me being a "reactionary"