Do you have ancestors who came to the New World on the Mayflower? You may be eligible to join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, more commonly known as the Mayflower Society.
What is the Mayflower Society?
The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, or Mayflower Society, is a lineage society that is dedicated to remembering those Pilgrims who came to America and established the Plymouth Colony. In order to join, a person needs to be able to prove their descendancy from one of more of the 102 Mayflower passengers who arrived in 1620. Tens of millions of Americans today can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower. To learn more about the society and its requirements, visit their website.
Joining a Lineage Society
At Legacy Tree we are dedicated to all types of genealogy, and as such, we are familiar with the membership requirements for a variety of different lineage societies, including the Mayflower Society. Some clients come to us with nothing more than a family story: “My mom said she was descended from someone who came on the Mayflower.” Others come to us with their line already preliminarily traced back to a Mayflower Pilgrim, but they don’t have the proof needed to satisfy the requirements to join. Others are somewhere in between – maybe they’ve traced their line back several generations but they just can’t bridge the gap on a couple of generations.
Documenting Descendancy
Luckily, the descendants of 31 of the Mayflower Pilgrims are pretty well documented coming forward a couple of generations (it is unknown if the rest even have descendants), so once you get your line back to a certain point you may be able to use existing documentation for the last generations. However, pre-1850 research is often very time consuming, and can take many hours to establish just one generational link, so you should still be prepared to potentially put in a substantial amount of time proving your generations back from the mid-1800s to where the existing documentation of descendants begins.
Our Team of Professional Genealogists Can Help
If you are interested in extending your family lines, collecting documentation to join a lineage society like the Mayflower Society, or adding details to the lives of the ancestors you’ve already identified – we can help! No matter where you’re at in the process, our professional genealogists are experienced at exhausting all options to find as much information as possible for you.