Genealogy Story – Being a Mayflower Blue Blood

In my last blog I detailed my family roots going back over 1000 years.  In both my mother’s and father’s family line they showed an arrival in America in 1640. But some say that to be a real “blue blood” you have to show a connection to the arrival of the Pilgrims 20 years earlier in 1620.

The family lines I outlined were only the passing along of the family name through male descendants. But as you trace back, each person has two parents, one male and one female. Going back to 1620 is over 300 years, so you will have over 1000 ancestors after 10 generations. While it’s much harder to trace through the maternal lines when you lose the continuity of the last name, it’s still possible to follow many of these lines, especially when dealing with families in New England.

So in this blog I wanted to show my Mayflower roots. There are an estimated 35 million people who are descended from the 41 individuals who survived the first harsh winter in Massachusetts and went on to have children, so it’s not as unusual as you might think. However, not all these individuals have traced their family tree.

Here is the line through my father’s side:

Joseph Rogers (1603-1696)

John Rogers (1642-1713)

John Rogers (1672-1713)

Benjamin Rogers (1704-1747)

Benjamin Rogers (1738-1824)

Joseph Rogers (1772-1837)

Benjamin Rogers (1814-1875)

Mary Rogers (1851-1933)

Caroline Levy (1872-1935)

Vera Levy (1895-1963)

Vernon Russell (1920-2006)

Alan Russell (1948-)

As you see, it’s through a single family name for several generations, so it was fairly easy to trace. I come from a long line of New England families, so the preceding is perhaps not surprising. However, my wife, who was born in Michigan and who has Dutch ancestors through her father and whose maternal grandmother came from a German immigrant family also has Mayflower roots – in fact more of them than I do!

Here is the first of her mother’s several Mayflower lines:

A - Joseph Rogers (1603-1696)

Thomas Rogers (1638-1678)

Eleazar Rogers (1673-1739)

Deborah Totman (1731-1813)

Malachi Barrows (1760-1802)

Spencer Barrows (1787-1875)

Andrew Barrows (1815-1902)

Abigail Barrows (1841-1920)

Frank Wright (1873-1957)

Mary Ellen Wright (1926-2010)

Donna VanDeCar (1947-)

As you can see, this one is also from the Rogers family, in fact it’s the basis for the blog that I wrote about “Marrying My Cousin” since we are 10^th cousins because of this connection. Here is the others of her mother’s Mayflower lines, note that many of them merge due to marriages among the various lines:

B - Samuel Fuller (1580-1633)

Samuel Fuller (1624-1695)

Samuel Fuller (1658-1727)

Seth Fuller (1692-1773)

Deborah Fuller (1733-1758)

Joseph Tinkham (1757-1822)

Molly Tinkham (1787-1874)

Amelia Bedford (1821-1891)

Abigail Barrows (1841-1920)

Frank Wright (1873-1957)

Mary Ellen Wright (1926-2010)

Donna VanDeCar (1947-)

C - Francis Eaton (1596-1633)

Samuel Eaton (1620-1684)

Mercy Eaton (1665-1704)

Seth Fuller (see line B)

D - Francis Billington (1606-1684)

Martha Billington (1638-1709)

Mercy Eaton (see line C)

E - Francis Cooke (1583-1663)

Jacob Cooke (1618-1676)

Ruth Cooke (1665-1734) (see line D)

F - Stephen Hopkins (1581-1644)

Damaris Hopkins (1627-1669)

Ruth Cooke (1665-1734)

John Tinkham (1689-1730)

Joseph Tinkham (1728-1774)

Joseph Tinkham (1757-1822) (see line B)

So, although my wife has a Dutch maiden name (traceable back to the Dutch settlers of New Holland along the Hudson River in NY), and her mother is half-German, she still has more ancestors who came over on the Mayflower than I do (and my ancestry is nearly all English).  Such are the interesting aspects of genealogical research!