{"id":2156,"date":"2015-06-30T13:29:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T13:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geneosity.com\/?p=2156"},"modified":"2015-06-30T13:29:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T13:29:58","slug":"are-you-a-descendent-of-the-mayflower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geneosity.com\/are-you-a-descendent-of-the-mayflower\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You a Descendent of the Mayflower?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My great grandmother\u2019s maiden name was Alden. And \u201ceveryone\u201d always said that through this line, we were descendants of the John and Priscilla Alden from the Mayflower. \u00a0I decided to prove it.\u00a0 I did and you can too!<\/p>\n

1)Study MayflowerSociety.org<\/a> and\u00a0Your State Mayflower Society<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What is required? What are the steps? How much does it cost? Get an idea of how much work and research this might take you.<\/p>\n

\"mayflower<\/a>
Mayflower Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2)Preliminary Application to National<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I did not find a relative with a Mayflower Society membership. So I decided to pay $25 and send in a preliminary lineage review through The Mayflower Society. This didn\u2019t take too long and clearly stated how far back I needed to prove lineage for my family. I felt it was a way for me to know if this application was a possibility. For me, it was worth it.\u00a0 If you have a family member who has a Mayflower Society member number, you will not<\/em> want to do this.<\/p>\n

3) Research: Start with Your Generation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Work to get birth, death, and marriage<\/em><\/strong> certificates for the persons required on the application.\u00a0 This starts with you and your spouse, then your parents, grandparents, etc in the line leading to the Mayflower ancestor. At a certain point, finding vital records may become impossible. It did for me, and that worried me. In my case, birth certificates had been lost; and death location was unclear. So I studied the list of acceptable proof on my state Mayflower Society site and began to search for other ways to prove birth, death, and marriage.<\/p>\n

4) Get Any and All Documentation from Family Members <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Bibles, letters, pictures, wills<\/em>, vital records,<\/em> etc. My uncle who lives in another state had a Bible that the family called the Alden Bible. He scanned it for me and I transcribed it. This was used as a source. But used alone, it wouldn\u2019t be enough. So I kept looking.<\/p>\n

5) Work with Local Genealogy Societies<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In my case, the local genealogy society was able to give me obituaries<\/em><\/strong> that were not available to the public. This opened up more possibilities. I also visited the cemetery in that county (an hour away) and took pictures of the tombstones<\/em><\/strong> applicable to the missing documentation. Census<\/em><\/strong> records became key to my success. I was missing an important census record and the local society had a copy that I couldn\u2019t find on ancestry.com<\/a>. This local society also had a published family history book<\/em><\/strong> which gave me another source for birth, death, and marriage where there were no vital records. The published family history of an Alden\u2019s spouse gave me proof I needed. So remember the spouse’s family can be a means of documentation and proof.<\/p>\n

I used other sources including internet sources to lead me to my final conclusions, but many of those sources were not allowed to be used for the application.\u00a0 I did not send in the application until I had what I hoped was enough proof at every generation level.<\/p>\n

My state Mayflower (volunteer) genealogist scoured through my records and sent me required corrections and items that needed clarified. This took some time and patience on my part. But it was worth it. When my application was sent to the national Mayflower Society, it was accepted. Now all my relatives can say with reasonable proof that they descend from John and Priscilla Alden.<\/p>\n

My last advice: be patient <\/strong>with the process (it’s not quick); be organized<\/strong>; be thorough<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so much fun!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My great grandmother\u2019s maiden name was Alden. And \u201ceveryone\u201d always said that through this line, we were descendants of the John and Priscilla Alden from … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":537,"featured_media":2158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAre You a Descendent of the Mayflower?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out by learning to research your family through the Mayflower Society, state genealogists and local genealogy organizations\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/geneosity.com\/are-you-a-descendent-of-the-mayflower\/\" \/>\n<meta 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