Find Your Own Link To The Mayflower

Check these resources in order to paint a full picture of your relative’s emigration to America

The USA saw a huge wave of immigration during the 19th and early 20th centuries, which presents the first hurdle for family history researchers. If you can trace an American line of your family tree back to the early 19th century, you’ll be drawing closer to the ‘older’ New England families. Bear in mind, however, that some Mayflower descendants may have returned to Europe or migrated elsewhere so don’t assume that only Americans will have pilgrim connections.

Fifty-one of the Mayflower’s passengers have known descendants, and this list can be reduced further to 26 surnames. So, if you can identify family members in earlier generations who share these surnames, you’re narrowing in. Thankfully, you don’t have to trace your family back to the 1600s because a lot of the early legwork has been done already.

If you have family in America in the early 1800s, check the Mayflower surname database ( freepages. rootsweb.com/~steadman/genealogy/wgasurs.html) or the Mayflower Families Through Five Generations books, published by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. The New England Historic Genealogical Society has now digitised much of this landmark series, including over half a million names of known descendants, creating the most comprehensive online Mayflower database to date ( americanancestors.org/ search/databasesearch/2728/mayflower-familiesfifth-generation-descendants-1700-1880).

To search the database, you must sign up for free ‘guest membership’, but to see the full entry, you need a paid membership ($94.95 per year). If your search result refers to the series’ first two volumes, you can find free copies on the Internet Archive: archive.org.