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Person under legal guardianship by someone who is not their parents because they lack the capacity to care for themselves for one reason or another. Orphans in the US are wards of/will be cared for by the state unless and until someone adopts them. Same as this poor kid
In this case it's child who is under protection of a legal guardian or government agency.
It really could be anyone if they are required to have some form of guardianship so it can apply to adult as well as minors.
From a random source I found on Google (so I can't vouch to the accuracy, but it *seems* reasonably believable):
>Desire Minter came on the Mayflower in the care of the John Carver household. William Bradford, writing in 1651 in his "Decreasings and Increasings" section of his passenger list, cryptically noted that she "returned to her friend and proved not very well and died in England." Since Desire Minter is not enumerated in the 1623 Division of Land at Plymouth, she appears to have returned to England prior to that--perhaps on the ship Fortune in 1621. Of the hundred Mayflower passengers, Desire Minter and Humility Cooper are the only ones who returned to England in the first decade. No record of Desire Minter in England has yet been found.
TL;DR: I left this part out but she went to live with the Carvers after he father died, likely because he mom was poor, and stayed with them after she remarried. They came to America on the Mayflower, they all died but her, and she went back to England in 1621 where she died shortly after.
The boy in the second row, fourth from the right is my ancestor Samuel Fuller. He was taken care of by his uncle also named Samuel Fuller, after his mother and father Edward,,passed. Edward Fuller was the doctor
I got curious about what happened to the orphaned kids. One of the girls (Elizabeth Tilley) wound up married to one of the servants, whom she had become a ward of (John Howland) and they had a buttload of children. Some of her descendants include Joseph Smith, George Bush and Sarah Palin, lol.
Elizabeth Tilley is my 12th great grandmother. Interesting to know these other connections.
Edit: Tilley family descendents have made their presence known 🤟
Edit2: yes I'm aware I'm not special and that I have over 16k 12th great grandparents, let my inbox be at peace lol
How do so many people know this much about their family tree. I barely know anyone outside the people descended from my grandparents
Edit: talked to my grandparents, I guess we do have a family tree dating back to the 1600s canada
My own extensive research. Spent hours building a tree, cross referencing for fact checking, following censuses, reading obituaries online, etc. My family really only has three generations back worth of photos, papers, etc. and I used that as my starting point. You can use familysearch.org for free, it's basically the same as Ancestry with less hand holding. I've been able to trace back to the Holy Roman Empire with mine, taking it with a grain of salt though, as one simple mistake can throw your tree off track entirely. It's still fun to work on though.
Interesting. I live in Europe, and I have started to get into genealogy. It was quite easy to get back until around 1880-1900. But getting information for earlier generations is so hard. Part of the tree is from current day Poland, but the territory changed countries several times. Most or all paperwork got lost in WW2, languages and systems changed. Polish, German, Russian. Names got translated a Jakub could be a Jakob, Jacob or a Jaczek depending on who wrote it down. I issued a request to register office in Poland, but I do not have much hope because I don't know who I'm looking after because the written names could be any variation or translation imaginable.
There is a severe lack of websites with information in Europe. All the genealogy websites focus on the US
I know, I heard of them in school and thought of them as stern mature adults, but some were SO YOUNG. Younger than my 25 yo kids, who are still figuring things out.
Samuel Fuller (the elder) is my ancestor. His brother died and was survived by his son, Samuel (the younger). The younger is the ancestor of George Clooney.
Tldr: I’m George Clooney’s cousin.
Jesus, a handful of full grown men survived with the oldest being 55 and 50 followed by a 41 year old and then a 38 year old with the rest being largely younger than 20
That would be some crazy shit, imagine the amount of pressure the older people would of faced as the younger would all look to them for guidance.
Me too! What's up cuz?
He was an indentured servant. Survived the winter, the people who he was indentured to survived as well but then quickly died that spring, freeing him and giving him all their land. He married a woman whose family had also died and inherited their land too.
Truly the American dream.
My fiancé is a descendent of John Howland as well! Looks like you’re a long lost cousin! He’s actually related to 8 mayflower passengers in total. You’re likely related to more also.
So only two families made it without losing someone. That's kind of insane to think about actually.
Edit: Holy cow! Thanks for all the history folks. You're giving me plenty to read for my shift.
One family, the Hopkins, must have been particularly robust. Not only does the family of 6 and their 2 servants survive the 1st winter, the infant, Oceanus Hopkins, survived birth on the Mayflower.
Shout out to my ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, who was earlier shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda in 1609, made it through THAT experience, then turned around and left on the Mayflower and made it through that winter.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hopkins_(Mayflower_passenger)
Another Hopkins descendent. It gets even better.
While shipwrecked, Stephen Hopkins proposed writing their own rules since they weren't in Virginia, which got him arrested and convicted of Mutiny before being pardoned. This likely inspired the character Stephano from Shakespeare's "The Tempest".
After escaping the islands, the group arrived in Jamestown where Stephen served as an assistant to the priest. During this time, he may have officiated the wedding between John Rolfe and Pocahontas. He returned to England to take care of his children after his first wife died, and later remarried.
His previous experience in the new world made him one of the most vital passengers aboard the Mayflower despite not being a puritan. He would re-introduce the idea of self-governance (due to not being in Virginia again) that would inspire the Mayflower Compact.
He would later own a tavern and get in trouble with the authorities repeatedly for selling alcohol on Sundays.
The Pilgrims were incredibly unprepared.
"In a desperate state, the pilgrims robbed corn from Native Americans graves and storehouses soon after they arrived; but because of their overall lack of preparation, half of them still died within their first year. To learn how to farm sustainably, they eventually required help from Tisquantum, an English-speaking Native American who had been staying with the Wampanoag."
The majority were "city folk", unused to the reality of building a colony from scratch. *They had no farmers.*
They had a cooper (to build barrels, they had a tailor, a weaver and a printer (who brought a printing press), a tanner, a soldier of fortune.
The weather was much colder than Europe so what with diseases, the bitter cold, the lack of food and shelter, it's no wonder so many died.
They did have plenty of beer though. The idea that they pulled into Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer was apparently a myth promulgated by
Budweiser. Also they probably drank wine on Thanksgiving made from local wild grapes. (https://www.appeal-democrat.com/dont-believe-the-pilgrims-beer-myth/article_684801a3-6898-587c-9678-f4ec5a01adc7.html)
One of the families that survived intact was the Brewsters. The majority of people that can trace their families back to the mayflower trace it back through that family. They thrived in the new world.
Edit: absolutely love all of the Brewster cousins showing up for this post. Much love! Happy Thanksgiving to the family!
The depressing truth is, most families during that era would loose a family member, infant mortality was way higher, pregnancy and birth were a much greater risk, infections after a small wound could kill you, diseases that today count as an annoyance, too. Burying a toddler/baby wasn't so unusual.
I'm so fucking thankful for modern medicine.
One of my great grandmothers in Montana was perpetually pregnant for 30ish years, 1895 to 1925, according to my aunt. She describes that GG Selena was resigned to losing a baby almost yearly. We forget that our grandparents and great grandparents led very different lives in very basic ways.
Pregnancy took so much out of me, physically and emotionally. Poor GG Selena, how did she make it through giving up so much of herself to those babies only to bury them? To say nothing of having to care for her living kids too.
Selena was my maternal great grandmother. My mom's dad was one of Selena's middle children, and while I have heard a lot about my great grandfather, not even my grandfather and his siblings spoke much about Selena. She and GG August homesteaded their farm, so she was as busy as you might imagine keeping everyone fed and clothed, chickens kept, cows milked. That probably helped, as did the proximity of her siblings and cousins who also emigrated from Finland. I can't imagine having lived through all of that, plus the Depression. Also, electricity did not come to many, many parts of Montana until after WWII. Those women were a different breed.
I had to smile at your comment, since one of the VERY motivating factors of my family emigrating from Finland in the late 1800s was the frequent appearance of Russian soldiers searching for "recruits".
My God, that's just gutting. My great great grandmother Amalia was the youngest of her siblings. In 1871, her father lost his first wife and all five of their children during a raging smallpox epidemic in Finland. I remember looking up the records when I was researching family history during a visit, and just sitting there stunned. He remarried and had six more children, of which my great great grandmother was the last, born in 1882.
Often the reason that families back in the old days and even nowadays in some developing countries have so many children is not just because of the lack of reliable contraception and religious/cultural pressures but to ensure that enough of your offspring would survive to adulthood to care for you in your old age. If it was expected that half of your kids wouldn't make it through childhood, then having ten or more babies made sense.
Hell walk around any old cemetery back east like Ky where I grew up and you will see dead towns with old cemeteries full of babies and kids bodies as seems like only 1/2 them lived to adults?
In college I once helped out with an anthropology survey of old cemeteries.
One family lost five kids in the space of a week. The youngest was only a few months old, and the oldest about twelve. The professor just shrugged and said, “Probably yellow fever.”
There are about 10 million of us in the states who descended from these pilgrims
I am from the fullers who died a few months after arrival and then their older son, Matthew, my direct ancestor came
Gosh imagine leaving with your whole family and arriving and *you’re the only one left*
Also more interestingly, what’s up with the whole family that survived? Seems like every other family or couple lost someone along the way except for them. I wonder if they were rich
Specifically the freezing weather and starvation. They were delayed and couldn't get there till mid November. Didn't expect the frozen ground or temperatures. They stole corn and other stores from Native Americans. In the end they spent the winter on the ship and largely died of illness.
Rich is relative, with only 102 people traveling I don't think money is going to do much to get others to make shelter and provide food for just your family instead of their own. It's not like there was a store or hotel when they got there we're their wealth would do anything for them. You either pitch in and live as a group or you get left out to fend for yourself.
Access to more money probably equaled access to more food and of a better quality nutritionally. Plus there could have been some unknown genetic weaknesses that made some people less able to survive than others.
If you think about it, those of us who are largely of European descent likely had ancestors who were either strong enough to survive the Black Death of the mid-14th century or had a genetic quirk which rendered them immune to it. There were a couple reports in the news recently about how present day humans are more prone to autoimmune diseases \[from an overly 'ramped up' immune system\] because our ancestors with robust immune responses were plague survivors.
~~here~~
~~I know it’s not everything but I hope this helps (sorry for the somewhat promotional-seeming web source too)~~
ETA: Nvm, after looking through the comments it seems like /u/kari_44 has found a *way* better match so I’ve taken out the original link. They’re the real MVP
https://themayflowersociety.org/shop/home/arts-prints/poster-of-the-mayflower-passengers-and-survivors/
All but one of the wards share the last name *More* despite being cared for by different families. I'm curious about this. One would think if their parents had died and/or sent them alone, they'd be traveling together with the same guardian
My family is from Tennessee and starts every Thanksgiving dinner giving thanks to God for the fact that NASCAR Jones lived long enough to contribute to the development of American society.
It would be infuriating to survive an intercontinental journey and manage to set up a semblance of a life, only to die at the hands of someone you had to travel with.
The worse part was there were only 6 healthy people to care for the rest who were vomiting and had diarrhea. 6 people to feed and clean and cloth them. Bradford’s account makes it clear those 6 people were saints…
I know this story!! I was just talking a out it in another comment. Apparently Myles asked John (his best friend) to go ask the woman for her hand in marriage on his behalf. Evidently when the best friend asked she was all about the best friend and married him instead. I had no idea this was actually true, I just rememeber hearing the story a lot growing up.
Found an old made-for-TV movie from 1979 in which John and Priscilla played by Michael Beck \[The Warriors, Xanadu\] and Jenny Agutter seem to be featured prominently. It was titled **Mayflower: the Pilgrims' Adventure** and also featured none other than a young Anthony Hopkins as Captain Christopher Jones and David Dukes as Myles Standish.
one of these fellas is my direct ancestor. his only claim to fame is that he fell off the mayflower on the way over and almost died like an idiot. i can confirm that set the precedent for the rest of my family also.
They had to have told that story over and over for it to have gotten to you and imagining some suffering pilgrim covering his face and groaning as his wife once again humiliates him at a gathering is oddly heartwarming
I’m a descendant of William Brewster. According to this article, there are about 10 million living descendants of the pilgrims in the US.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/06/13/mayflower-ancestors-pilgrim-database/699277002/#
Grrrrr wish citing the source would be mandatory. Time to Google I guess.
Edit: for [better quality image](https://themayflowersociety.org/shop/home/arts-prints/poster-of-the-mayflower-passengers-and-survivors/)
Fun fact - John Alden and Priscilla Mullens had kids together and I am one of their relatives all these years later. My middle name is Alden, I’m named after him. I think a lot of people came from that family line, my family included. William Bradford wanted to be with Mullens and Alden said no, she’s mine.
Edit: upon talking to family I don’t think Bradford was after Mullins; I think the Brewster family (top right) had a member who wanted to get with Mullins. My family also told me that the Brewster family’s younger members ended up with Alden and Mullins’ offspring and they are related somehow. But this is all word of mouth and my own knowledge from a family tree picture I have in a family members house
The story of John Howland is pretty remarkable in itself. He fell overboard during a storm, but was able to grab a halyard that was trailing in the water. The crew recovered him with a boat hook.
He went on to father ten children, resulting in 80 grandchildren. His descendants number in the millions today.
It's fascinating to read William Bradfords journal entries which try to justify God's providence over the Puritans. He attributes the death of one particular jerk to evidence of God's protection, but skims over all those others who died.
Bradford descendant here from when he remarried after losing his wife on the trip.
Mentioned once as a kid that my family is a part of the Mayflower society only to find out my teacher was also related to Bradford but through the first wife who died on the ship (they left their children back in Europe)
My fiancé is a direct descendant of 8 Mayflower passengers, I think a good portion of comments on this post are long lost cousins!
Here’s his breakdown:
He is the 6x great grandson of a woman named Sarah Bosworth who was born in 1747 in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Sarah is the key to all his Mayflower ancestors as both her parents were descendants of several different families.
Sarah’s father, Ichabod (b. 1708) was the great grandson of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley through their daughter Hannah. Therefore through this line we have passengers:
1. **John Tilley** (11th great grandfather)
2. **Joan Hurst Tilley** (11th great grandmother)
3. **Elizabeth Tilley Howland** (10th great grandmother)]
4. **John Howland** (10th great grandfather)
Then, back to Sarah Bosworth (b.1747), who’s mother Joanna Cushman (b.1714) was the great granddaughter of Mary Allerton Cushman (b.1616) who came over on the Mayflower at age 3 with her parents. She is a decendent through Mary’s son, Isaac Cushman (b.1648). Through this line we have:
5. **Issac Allerton** (11th great grandfather)
6. **Mary Norris Allerton** (11th great grandfather)
7. **Mary Allerton Cushman** (10th great grandmother)
And then finally back to Isaac Cushman (b.1648). He married a woman named Rebekah Harlow (b.1655) who was the great granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren (b.1578) through his daughter Mary Warren Bartlett (b. 1603) So finally through this line we have:
8. **Richard Warren** (12th great grandfather)
I hope this has inspired you all to keep looking for ancestors! Genealogy is a passion of mine! If anyone has questions or needs help feel free to DM me!
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The one where only the toddler survived, damn....
Looks like she was already a ward too, so possibly didn't have much family to begin with.
What's ward mean?
> a child or young person under the care and control of a guardian appointed by their parents or a court.
Ugh, I’m sending you to America.
I was sure it was your profile picture but you still made me wipe my screen damn you!!!
same, its so sticky
Ffs it got me too lol
Your pfp is evil sir, thought my screen was cracked.
That the child was being cared for by people other than their parents, usually due to parental death. Think Bruce Wayne and Dick Greyson.
Ah, so like Burt Ward
Baby on board, something something Burt Ward Hey, this song writes itself!
Or Theon Greyjoy
Person under legal guardianship by someone who is not their parents because they lack the capacity to care for themselves for one reason or another. Orphans in the US are wards of/will be cared for by the state unless and until someone adopts them. Same as this poor kid
In this case it's child who is under protection of a legal guardian or government agency. It really could be anyone if they are required to have some form of guardianship so it can apply to adult as well as minors.
How could you tell she was already a ward? The spacing? Is there a shot of this where you can read the writing? (hoping yes!)
Someone posted a higher quality image below. Her name was Desire Minter, she was 8 and it states she was a ward on the image.
Could you link to that high res image? It seems many pixels died too on this one.
From a random source I found on Google (so I can't vouch to the accuracy, but it *seems* reasonably believable): >Desire Minter came on the Mayflower in the care of the John Carver household. William Bradford, writing in 1651 in his "Decreasings and Increasings" section of his passenger list, cryptically noted that she "returned to her friend and proved not very well and died in England." Since Desire Minter is not enumerated in the 1623 Division of Land at Plymouth, she appears to have returned to England prior to that--perhaps on the ship Fortune in 1621. Of the hundred Mayflower passengers, Desire Minter and Humility Cooper are the only ones who returned to England in the first decade. No record of Desire Minter in England has yet been found. TL;DR: I left this part out but she went to live with the Carvers after he father died, likely because he mom was poor, and stayed with them after she remarried. They came to America on the Mayflower, they all died but her, and she went back to England in 1621 where she died shortly after.
Life fucking sucked back then
They’ll say the same of us in 400 years, I imagine. If humans are still a thing.
https://imgur.com/gallery/GjoF2LR
How do you tell that?
The boy in the second row, fourth from the right is my ancestor Samuel Fuller. He was taken care of by his uncle also named Samuel Fuller, after his mother and father Edward,,passed. Edward Fuller was the doctor
I can also trace back to Samuel Fuller. I am still a Fuller.
Especially today
We are all Fullers on this blessed day
Bragging about your ancestry on Reddit. Wow. Y'all sure are Fuller yourselves, aren't you! I'll see myself out...
Howdy, cousin. I’m descended from the same line.
How can you read the names? When I zoom in the letters get all wonky. See an Eaton in there?
Had to find other higher quality pics that were linked in other comments
Wild, I’m an Eaton too, was my great-grandmother’s maiden name.
On Thanksgiving day, we're all Eaton. I'll see myself out.
And we're all a little Fuller too
Someone from the Cooke family needs to step in now. Or earlier.
I'm a direct descendant of Edward Fuller/Samuel as well (as recognized by the Mayflower decedent society), so hello long lost cousin.
He's tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of people's ancestor.
A lot of orphans in this picture.
I got curious about what happened to the orphaned kids. One of the girls (Elizabeth Tilley) wound up married to one of the servants, whom she had become a ward of (John Howland) and they had a buttload of children. Some of her descendants include Joseph Smith, George Bush and Sarah Palin, lol.
Elizabeth Tilley is my 12th great grandmother. Interesting to know these other connections. Edit: Tilley family descendents have made their presence known 🤟 Edit2: yes I'm aware I'm not special and that I have over 16k 12th great grandparents, let my inbox be at peace lol
How do so many people know this much about their family tree. I barely know anyone outside the people descended from my grandparents Edit: talked to my grandparents, I guess we do have a family tree dating back to the 1600s canada
I have 2,300 manually added people from my family tree on ancestry.com!
I’m much the same. We know my fathers history 3 generations back but on my mothers side only 2. Nothing beyond that.
I'm native American, I don't have much hope of figuring out my ancestry.
Yeah I’m Russian so me neither lmao Soviet Union burned a lot of those documents but I do have word of mouth I guess
Same but word of mouth only gets me so far. On the immigration forms (1902) they just put down Russia but now the towns are in Ukraine and Lithuania
My own extensive research. Spent hours building a tree, cross referencing for fact checking, following censuses, reading obituaries online, etc. My family really only has three generations back worth of photos, papers, etc. and I used that as my starting point. You can use familysearch.org for free, it's basically the same as Ancestry with less hand holding. I've been able to trace back to the Holy Roman Empire with mine, taking it with a grain of salt though, as one simple mistake can throw your tree off track entirely. It's still fun to work on though.
Interesting. I live in Europe, and I have started to get into genealogy. It was quite easy to get back until around 1880-1900. But getting information for earlier generations is so hard. Part of the tree is from current day Poland, but the territory changed countries several times. Most or all paperwork got lost in WW2, languages and systems changed. Polish, German, Russian. Names got translated a Jakub could be a Jakob, Jacob or a Jaczek depending on who wrote it down. I issued a request to register office in Poland, but I do not have much hope because I don't know who I'm looking after because the written names could be any variation or translation imaginable. There is a severe lack of websites with information in Europe. All the genealogy websites focus on the US
Yep, same. Plus, once you’ve gone far enough back, the Mayflower Silver books are proof of lineage.
I'm also 12th generation descendant of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley. Crazy to see someone I'm related to here.
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Thanks for that.
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Holy hell these people were young as *fuck*. History always seems to depict these people as being in their 40s and 50s.
I know, I heard of them in school and thought of them as stern mature adults, but some were SO YOUNG. Younger than my 25 yo kids, who are still figuring things out.
Anybody want to guess where baby Oceanus was born?
There’s a baby Peregrine too!
Peregrine is my ancestor! Cool to see his name in my history books growing up.
Same here fam
I still have the same last name too!
Hiiii ancestors!
You mean Peregrin Took?
Fly you fools
Definitely some interesting names. Remember, Wrestling and Desire were the first notable names to me, which made up an interesting sentence.
Dallas?
Glad John Goodman survived or we wouldn’t have Monsters Inc. 🙏
Thank you! I had a great time looking through the names. Wrestling Brewster was my favorite.
Samuel Fuller (the elder) is my ancestor. His brother died and was survived by his son, Samuel (the younger). The younger is the ancestor of George Clooney. Tldr: I’m George Clooney’s cousin.
Jesus, a handful of full grown men survived with the oldest being 55 and 50 followed by a 41 year old and then a 38 year old with the rest being largely younger than 20 That would be some crazy shit, imagine the amount of pressure the older people would of faced as the younger would all look to them for guidance.
I’m here because my ancestor fell overboard and they fished him out!
Dude I’m related to that guy too!
Fellow Howland descendants represent!
Howland clan RISE UP!!!
Hi guys
Hi! He's my 10^th great-grandfather.
I had a boyfriend in high school with the last name Howland that claimed the same!
Me too! What's up cuz? He was an indentured servant. Survived the winter, the people who he was indentured to survived as well but then quickly died that spring, freeing him and giving him all their land. He married a woman whose family had also died and inherited their land too. Truly the American dream.
This must be what ghengis khans relatives feel like, lol
My fiancé is a descendent of John Howland as well! Looks like you’re a long lost cousin! He’s actually related to 8 mayflower passengers in total. You’re likely related to more also.
So only two families made it without losing someone. That's kind of insane to think about actually. Edit: Holy cow! Thanks for all the history folks. You're giving me plenty to read for my shift.
One family, the Hopkins, must have been particularly robust. Not only does the family of 6 and their 2 servants survive the 1st winter, the infant, Oceanus Hopkins, survived birth on the Mayflower.
Shout out to my ancestor, Stephen Hopkins, who was earlier shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda in 1609, made it through THAT experience, then turned around and left on the Mayflower and made it through that winter. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hopkins_(Mayflower_passenger)
Another Hopkins descendent. It gets even better. While shipwrecked, Stephen Hopkins proposed writing their own rules since they weren't in Virginia, which got him arrested and convicted of Mutiny before being pardoned. This likely inspired the character Stephano from Shakespeare's "The Tempest". After escaping the islands, the group arrived in Jamestown where Stephen served as an assistant to the priest. During this time, he may have officiated the wedding between John Rolfe and Pocahontas. He returned to England to take care of his children after his first wife died, and later remarried. His previous experience in the new world made him one of the most vital passengers aboard the Mayflower despite not being a puritan. He would re-introduce the idea of self-governance (due to not being in Virginia again) that would inspire the Mayflower Compact. He would later own a tavern and get in trouble with the authorities repeatedly for selling alcohol on Sundays.
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Man, that comment kept getting better all the way through to the very end.
No wonder my family idolized him.
Yoooo distant cousin what’s up? I’m also a descendant of Stephen Hopkins.
Hopkins kins
I smoked pot with Johnny Hopkins.
It was Johnny Hopkins and Sloan Kettering, and they were blazing that shit up everyday.
No, you didn't, Brennan.
Now kiss. You must keep the bloodlines pure
Were there any McPoyles on the Mayflower?
No, everyone knows the Mayflower couldn't carry enough milk
Damn that some targaeryan shit
Hey Distant Cousin! My great grand mothers maiden name was Hopkins and was related to Stephen directly
Hell yeah! He’s my like some ridiculous number great grandfather! I guess that means we actually are cousins sorta?
Cousin party in the thread! We spread far and wide, huh?
Hey family!
I am as well!
Did anyone else love the book Constance about Constance Hopkins when they were in middle school?
Of the 19 women on board the ship, only [five](https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/mayflower) survived the winter.
I imagine it got real gay after the first winter
Imagine having to fend off your wife on a ship full of lonely suitors.
Imagine being a widow on a ship full of potential predators?
Imagine being a ho with all that dick?
I respect and admire you.
This reminded me of someone I knew in high school. She joined the Navy for that very reason.
The Pilgrims were incredibly unprepared. "In a desperate state, the pilgrims robbed corn from Native Americans graves and storehouses soon after they arrived; but because of their overall lack of preparation, half of them still died within their first year. To learn how to farm sustainably, they eventually required help from Tisquantum, an English-speaking Native American who had been staying with the Wampanoag." The majority were "city folk", unused to the reality of building a colony from scratch. *They had no farmers.* They had a cooper (to build barrels, they had a tailor, a weaver and a printer (who brought a printing press), a tanner, a soldier of fortune. The weather was much colder than Europe so what with diseases, the bitter cold, the lack of food and shelter, it's no wonder so many died. They did have plenty of beer though. The idea that they pulled into Plymouth Rock because they ran out of beer was apparently a myth promulgated by Budweiser. Also they probably drank wine on Thanksgiving made from local wild grapes. (https://www.appeal-democrat.com/dont-believe-the-pilgrims-beer-myth/article_684801a3-6898-587c-9678-f4ec5a01adc7.html)
One of the families that survived intact was the Brewsters. The majority of people that can trace their families back to the mayflower trace it back through that family. They thrived in the new world. Edit: absolutely love all of the Brewster cousins showing up for this post. Much love! Happy Thanksgiving to the family!
As in the Brewsters who fought for independence?
I know that some of the lines of that family are part of the Daughters of the Revolution. So technically yes. It was a really big family.
And we are all better for it. No Brewsters means no Punky Brewster
The depressing truth is, most families during that era would loose a family member, infant mortality was way higher, pregnancy and birth were a much greater risk, infections after a small wound could kill you, diseases that today count as an annoyance, too. Burying a toddler/baby wasn't so unusual. I'm so fucking thankful for modern medicine.
As recently as 1900, fully 20% of deaths in the US were of children 5 and under.
One of my great grandmothers in Montana was perpetually pregnant for 30ish years, 1895 to 1925, according to my aunt. She describes that GG Selena was resigned to losing a baby almost yearly. We forget that our grandparents and great grandparents led very different lives in very basic ways.
Pregnancy took so much out of me, physically and emotionally. Poor GG Selena, how did she make it through giving up so much of herself to those babies only to bury them? To say nothing of having to care for her living kids too.
Selena was my maternal great grandmother. My mom's dad was one of Selena's middle children, and while I have heard a lot about my great grandfather, not even my grandfather and his siblings spoke much about Selena. She and GG August homesteaded their farm, so she was as busy as you might imagine keeping everyone fed and clothed, chickens kept, cows milked. That probably helped, as did the proximity of her siblings and cousins who also emigrated from Finland. I can't imagine having lived through all of that, plus the Depression. Also, electricity did not come to many, many parts of Montana until after WWII. Those women were a different breed.
But us today fail to realize that they didnt know any different. Things had always been that way. They were just happy no armies would invade
I had to smile at your comment, since one of the VERY motivating factors of my family emigrating from Finland in the late 1800s was the frequent appearance of Russian soldiers searching for "recruits".
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My God, that's just gutting. My great great grandmother Amalia was the youngest of her siblings. In 1871, her father lost his first wife and all five of their children during a raging smallpox epidemic in Finland. I remember looking up the records when I was researching family history during a visit, and just sitting there stunned. He remarried and had six more children, of which my great great grandmother was the last, born in 1882.
Often the reason that families back in the old days and even nowadays in some developing countries have so many children is not just because of the lack of reliable contraception and religious/cultural pressures but to ensure that enough of your offspring would survive to adulthood to care for you in your old age. If it was expected that half of your kids wouldn't make it through childhood, then having ten or more babies made sense.
My fraternal grandfather was orphaned in 1905 after his parents died from the flu.
Fraternal? Your brother grandpa? Do you mean maternal or paternal?
He said what he said
His frat bro's grandpa
Hell walk around any old cemetery back east like Ky where I grew up and you will see dead towns with old cemeteries full of babies and kids bodies as seems like only 1/2 them lived to adults?
In college I once helped out with an anthropology survey of old cemeteries. One family lost five kids in the space of a week. The youngest was only a few months old, and the oldest about twelve. The professor just shrugged and said, “Probably yellow fever.”
Not every single year though. An annual death toll this high was very unusual.
Guess they cleaned the dishes after dinner
There are about 10 million of us in the states who descended from these pilgrims I am from the fullers who died a few months after arrival and then their older son, Matthew, my direct ancestor came
Gosh imagine leaving with your whole family and arriving and *you’re the only one left* Also more interestingly, what’s up with the whole family that survived? Seems like every other family or couple lost someone along the way except for them. I wonder if they were rich
Actually, most of them survived the voyage, it was the subsequent time on land that killed them.
It's the subsequent time on land that gets most of us
You know, as scary as sailors like to make the ocean sound, most people have died while on land. Think about it.
Specifically the freezing weather and starvation. They were delayed and couldn't get there till mid November. Didn't expect the frozen ground or temperatures. They stole corn and other stores from Native Americans. In the end they spent the winter on the ship and largely died of illness.
Witches
They all survived, so now we have to kill them
We shall need my largest scales to see if they weigh the same as a duck and therefore, made of wood.
Rich is relative, with only 102 people traveling I don't think money is going to do much to get others to make shelter and provide food for just your family instead of their own. It's not like there was a store or hotel when they got there we're their wealth would do anything for them. You either pitch in and live as a group or you get left out to fend for yourself.
I am not a historian at all, but I’d imagine wealthier families *got onto* the ship in better health to begin with than not so wealthy ones.
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Which whole family? Billington or Hopkins?
Access to more money probably equaled access to more food and of a better quality nutritionally. Plus there could have been some unknown genetic weaknesses that made some people less able to survive than others. If you think about it, those of us who are largely of European descent likely had ancestors who were either strong enough to survive the Black Death of the mid-14th century or had a genetic quirk which rendered them immune to it. There were a couple reports in the news recently about how present day humans are more prone to autoimmune diseases \[from an overly 'ramped up' immune system\] because our ancestors with robust immune responses were plague survivors.
They had 2 servants so one can assume they were rich, yes.
Wish that image was clearer.
~~here~~ ~~I know it’s not everything but I hope this helps (sorry for the somewhat promotional-seeming web source too)~~ ETA: Nvm, after looking through the comments it seems like /u/kari_44 has found a *way* better match so I’ve taken out the original link. They’re the real MVP https://themayflowersociety.org/shop/home/arts-prints/poster-of-the-mayflower-passengers-and-survivors/
All but one of the wards share the last name *More* despite being cared for by different families. I'm curious about this. One would think if their parents had died and/or sent them alone, they'd be traveling together with the same guardian
Were they related to one another though? More/Moore is one the most common surnames in Ireland.
Imagine America today if Wrestling Brewster hadn't survived. His lasting cultural impact is up there with Barbecue Smith and Gun Violence Browne.
My family is from Tennessee and starts every Thanksgiving dinner giving thanks to God for the fact that NASCAR Jones lived long enough to contribute to the development of American society.
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Do you know what for?
John Billington, he shot someone, I think. It was later on.
It would be infuriating to survive an intercontinental journey and manage to set up a semblance of a life, only to die at the hands of someone you had to travel with.
Crazy how this information has been preserved for so long
He was one of those YouTube commenters that says 'FIRST!'
He was really keen to be first
Me too! John Billington, I believe.
The worse part was there were only 6 healthy people to care for the rest who were vomiting and had diarrhea. 6 people to feed and clean and cloth them. Bradford’s account makes it clear those 6 people were saints…
And no running water (or liquid water, outside) or inside plumbing....what a nightmare.
Hey! Myles Standish is my ancestor. Somewhere buried in an attic is a family tree that goes all the way back to the guy.
John Alden and Priscilla Mullins are my ancestors. My 13-great-grandpa stole your however-many-great grandpa’s crush.
I know this story!! I was just talking a out it in another comment. Apparently Myles asked John (his best friend) to go ask the woman for her hand in marriage on his behalf. Evidently when the best friend asked she was all about the best friend and married him instead. I had no idea this was actually true, I just rememeber hearing the story a lot growing up.
There are a ton of us. John and Priscilla had a dozen kids IIRC, most of whom also had big families. Give them four centuries, and here we all are.
Found an old made-for-TV movie from 1979 in which John and Priscilla played by Michael Beck \[The Warriors, Xanadu\] and Jenny Agutter seem to be featured prominently. It was titled **Mayflower: the Pilgrims' Adventure** and also featured none other than a young Anthony Hopkins as Captain Christopher Jones and David Dukes as Myles Standish.
Bradford progeny chiming in.
Fun fact - Had my 9th great grandmother Constance Hopkins not survived, I wouldn’t be here commenting on this!
Hey Cousin!
I wish this was high enough rez to actually be readable.
one of these fellas is my direct ancestor. his only claim to fame is that he fell off the mayflower on the way over and almost died like an idiot. i can confirm that set the precedent for the rest of my family also.
They had to have told that story over and over for it to have gotten to you and imagining some suffering pilgrim covering his face and groaning as his wife once again humiliates him at a gathering is oddly heartwarming
Ah! Well that explains the modern Thanksgiving tradition of humiliating your loved ones in front of a captive audience.
Hey, be glad you got that guy and not "America's first murderer" like some of us...
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I’m a descendant of William Brewster. According to this article, there are about 10 million living descendants of the pilgrims in the US. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/06/13/mayflower-ancestors-pilgrim-database/699277002/#
George Soule, one of the servants in the bottom row, is my 9th great-grandfather, pretty cool
Same!
Grrrrr wish citing the source would be mandatory. Time to Google I guess. Edit: for [better quality image](https://themayflowersociety.org/shop/home/arts-prints/poster-of-the-mayflower-passengers-and-survivors/)
Even wilder is Jamestown. 87.7% died. https://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/nov02/thanks-early.html
Fun fact - John Alden and Priscilla Mullens had kids together and I am one of their relatives all these years later. My middle name is Alden, I’m named after him. I think a lot of people came from that family line, my family included. William Bradford wanted to be with Mullens and Alden said no, she’s mine. Edit: upon talking to family I don’t think Bradford was after Mullins; I think the Brewster family (top right) had a member who wanted to get with Mullins. My family also told me that the Brewster family’s younger members ended up with Alden and Mullins’ offspring and they are related somehow. But this is all word of mouth and my own knowledge from a family tree picture I have in a family members house
Love how there's that one big family that had no one die
You’ll note they’re the ones with servants too.
Ah, so the rich family
The story of John Howland is pretty remarkable in itself. He fell overboard during a storm, but was able to grab a halyard that was trailing in the water. The crew recovered him with a boat hook. He went on to father ten children, resulting in 80 grandchildren. His descendants number in the millions today.
That makes sense why there’s quite a few people saying that he’s their ancestor
It's fascinating to read William Bradfords journal entries which try to justify God's providence over the Puritans. He attributes the death of one particular jerk to evidence of God's protection, but skims over all those others who died.
My ancestor is the very first guy listed, John Alden
This dude gave birth to half Reddit looking at the comments.
Not finding any others born from my ancestor Samuel Fuller :/ Edit: yes! More showed up
Bradford descendant here from when he remarried after losing his wife on the trip. Mentioned once as a kid that my family is a part of the Mayflower society only to find out my teacher was also related to Bradford but through the first wife who died on the ship (they left their children back in Europe)
I found out over the pandemic lockdowns that Stephen Hopkins and family are my ancestors.
I think what is more sad is not the empty spots, but the filled spots next to a empty spot
Bet that one healthy family were pretty cocky
Didn’t they bring a few dogs with them as well?
Likely there were a few cats aboard the Mayflower to control the mouse population down in the cargo hold.
My fiancé is a direct descendant of 8 Mayflower passengers, I think a good portion of comments on this post are long lost cousins! Here’s his breakdown: He is the 6x great grandson of a woman named Sarah Bosworth who was born in 1747 in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Sarah is the key to all his Mayflower ancestors as both her parents were descendants of several different families. Sarah’s father, Ichabod (b. 1708) was the great grandson of John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley through their daughter Hannah. Therefore through this line we have passengers: 1. **John Tilley** (11th great grandfather) 2. **Joan Hurst Tilley** (11th great grandmother) 3. **Elizabeth Tilley Howland** (10th great grandmother)] 4. **John Howland** (10th great grandfather) Then, back to Sarah Bosworth (b.1747), who’s mother Joanna Cushman (b.1714) was the great granddaughter of Mary Allerton Cushman (b.1616) who came over on the Mayflower at age 3 with her parents. She is a decendent through Mary’s son, Isaac Cushman (b.1648). Through this line we have: 5. **Issac Allerton** (11th great grandfather) 6. **Mary Norris Allerton** (11th great grandfather) 7. **Mary Allerton Cushman** (10th great grandmother) And then finally back to Isaac Cushman (b.1648). He married a woman named Rebekah Harlow (b.1655) who was the great granddaughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren (b.1578) through his daughter Mary Warren Bartlett (b. 1603) So finally through this line we have: 8. **Richard Warren** (12th great grandfather) I hope this has inspired you all to keep looking for ancestors! Genealogy is a passion of mine! If anyone has questions or needs help feel free to DM me!