History man has pilgrim roots
AN AMATEUR historian who has been tracing his family tree has found he is descended from one of the pilgrims who helped colonise the USA.
David Hulme, of Heaton Mersey, has confirmed he is six generations down from Stephen Hopkins, who was among those who travelled to America on the Mayflower in 1620.
The 72-year-old is only the third European to have proved a family line from one of the 30 passengers on the famous ship.
He made the discovery after 25 years trying to track down his father, who was an American GI stationed in Stockport during World War II.
David, a former broadcast journalist, said: “It has been absolutely lifechanging, I spent a quarter of a century trying to track down my father and thought I would go to the grave not knowing.
“Then it all happened so quickly, now I know I’m descended from the settlers who were on the Mayflower, the main event at the start of America.
“So far I’ve traced 30 ancestors in America, I can’t tell you how exciting it is. I have to pinch myself.”
David, who has a son, a daughter and two grandchildren, began his search after his grandmother’s friend told him he was fathered by a GI named John Bell.
But his mother, who passed away in 1997, became upset at the revelation and refused to give him any more detail.
After a fruitless search of more than two decades David submitted a DNA sample to organisation GI Trace, who returned with the answer.
It was found Allan Russell Edwards, who served with the 837 Ordnance Depot Unit, was his father and ‘John Bell’ was an assumed name. Sadly Allan developed MS in 1949, which led to his early death.
Since then David has traced a half sister, who he has spoken to, a half brother and two cousins.
And following further research the latest twist has seen the Mayflower Society use its records to confirm the five generational links between David and Stephen Hopkins.
Adventurer Stephen was born in Hampshire in 1581 and had 10 children with two different wives.
He survived being shipwrecked and later sentenced to death for mutiny in Bermuda before his 66-day voyage to America. He became an assistant governor in Plymouth, Massachusetts.