I have discovered 3 DBE members descended from Mayflower pilgrims. There may be more, because, according to Katie Blair in Texas, there are an estimated 20,000 - 40,000 people who do not know they are eligible to join the Mayflower Society.  Ellen Stortz tells me that it's common among Mayflower descendants to be related to more than one, because there wasn't anyone here to marry except the children of other Mayflower passengers, so most of them have ties to one another through their offspring marrying one another.

The group of 102 passengers who traveled to the New World on the Mayflower was quite varied.  Some were members of the Leiden congregation, but there were also people seeking a better life or financial gain.  They became known as the two groups of "saints" and "strangers."  Although the Leiden congregation had sent their strongest members, with skills for establishing a new colony, nearly half the passengers died the first winter of "the great sickness."

The Mayflower Pilgrims and their fellow travelers were authors of the first true governing document created in a New World colony.  The Mayflower Compact (1620) is considered to have set the stage for the Constitution of the United States.

Member Katie Blair told me a lot about her geneology search.  She says that the Mayflower Society is very strong in the US and is growing in Europe - many people who were relatives of the actual Mayflower voyagers - children, wives, brothers, sisters, cousins, etc. - are now joining in Europe with their own subgroup.

Katie says that the Canadian Archivists are the best to work with.  She says that geneologists won't help, because she's getting close (within two generations) to living people.  She is having the most trouble establishing the lines that originated in Ireland.  The women were never identified with the counties in Ireland that they came from and their parents' names.  The Catholic Church is where the the records were.

Seven US Presidents are directly descending from Mayflower Pilgrims - Adams, Taylor, Grant, Garfield, Franklin Roosevelt, George H. Bush and George W. Bush.  There are also dozens and dozens of celebrities who can trace their family back to the Mayflower - some you may have heard of: Marilyn Monroe, Orson Welles, Clint Eastwood, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Gere, Sarah Palin, Bing Crosby, Hugh Hefner, Cokie Roberts, Dr. Spock.  What a cross-section of humanity!

There is a huge amount of information about the Mayflower and the Pilgims at many good sites, such as:

 Mayflower History

 Mayflower Society

You can find lists of the passengers with information about them, Plymouth town records, letters written by pilgrims, wills and estate inventories of pilgrims, and so much more.  There is a lot of fascinating stuff.

This page is a work in progress.  I hope to hear from any other readers of the site who have ancestors who were on the Mayflower.  Email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it !