I haven’t blogged much lately because I have been busy doing some genealogical research. I have learned a lot more about my forebearers than I ever knew before. I may be related to old Scottish royalty. Pretty cool.
But Jett’s family has been even more interesting.
I have gotten almost nowhere on her mother’s Irish side. And her paternal grandmother – an English war bride from WW II – is also a blank slate. But the rest of her paternal lineage is fascinating. I have traced most of her paternal great-grandfather’s line back to the founding of America and every single immigrant that I could document arrived before 1700. And 95% arrived before 1650. I would characterize that lineage as “purebred Pilgrim” and the founding fathers of most of New England. I had documented members of her family who were original settlers of the Massachusetts towns of Salem, Watertown, Concord, Lexington and Bridgewater and the Maine town of Kittery. And, yes, Plymouth and Boston, too.
She is descended from not one but at least 5 of the 45 passengers of the Mayflower who survived the trip and the horrific first winter. She is a direct descendant of John Alden, arguably one of the most famous of the 45. He was, technically, not a Pilgrim as he made the voyage as a crewman rather than a passenger, but was immortalized in Longfellow’s poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish. And, yes, she is also a direct descendant of Priscilla Mullins, the women made famous by the poem and the one who uttered the famous line, “Why don’t you speak for yourself, John?”
I told Jett that, with this lineage, she is as close to royalty as we get in America.
I am sure she will remind me of that frequently.