New partnership makes it easier to prove Pilgrim ancestry

BOSTON » The number of people trying to determine whether they are descended from a Mayflower passenger is surging as the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival in the New World approaches in 2020.

Now, a partnership announced Thursday between the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the General Society of Mayflower Descendants is making it easier to figure out.

The Boston-based genealogical society is digitizing and indexing authenticated Mayflower Pilgrim genealogies and 50 years’ worth of the “Mayflower Quarterly” magazine, and making them available at its research site, www.americanancestors.org.

There were 102 people on the Mayflower when it landed in Massachusetts in 1620. Half died in the first year.

Today, there are an estimated 10 million living Americans and as many as 35 million people worldwide descended from that resilient little group, said Lea Filson, governor general of the Plymouth-based General Society of Mayflower Descendants. They include presidents, poets and celebrities.

Yet her organization has only about 30,000 members. She’d like to see that grow.

“With the 400th anniversary coming up, we’ve seen a huge uptick in membership applications,” Filson said. “But at the same time, people say they have a hard time getting a hold of our records.”

The genealogies, called “Silver Books,” because of their distinctive covers, have previously only been available for purchase from the Mayflower society or from libraries, said Ryan Woods, the vice president and chief operating officer of the genealogical society. They include about 150,000 birth, marriage, death and deed records.

The Mayflower society’s records are so accurate and unimpeachable that tracing your roots to them automatically qualifies you for membership.