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There are supposedly 35 million Mayflower descendants worldwide. I don't know how they count that. From my experience, if you have one you will likely have more if they survived that first year. I have seven on that boat that I know of. I may be counted more than once.
There are supposedly 35 million Mayflower descendants worldwide. I don't know how they count that. From my experience, if you have one you will likely have more if they survived that first year. I have seven on that boat that I know of. I may be counted more than once.
There are so many descendants now that it's not a big deal, just kind of interesting. I never expected to find one and I wasn't looking for one. It happened when I was trying to trace one particular line and they were in NY state. Surprisingly they tied in with Delano and I said, "Delano?" As in Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Sure enough, that line fell right into place.
But I don't identify with that long ago side. I identify with my dirt poor mill workers who survived a meager life in the North of England until they came here. Love their foods, their dialect, their jokes. Yorkshire Pudding, anyone?
My ancestors are primarily the British Isles--my ancestry is almost even on English and Celtic, with a dash of Norwegian thrown in.
However, my ancestors were always 'coming over', from the 1600's on. The last immigrants in my family were my great-grandmother and her three children from her first marriage. Her fourth child was her first one by her second husband, and that child was my grandmother. So my grandma had cousins that were still in England. (They came to visit once. Their minds were blown by how much space there was.) She was invited to go visit them back in England, but she never liked traveling much. We almost convinced her to go when I was stationed in Germany, I told her if she wanted to come, I would take leave and meet her in England. She was close to doing it, then got sick, and after she recovered, decided it was 'a sign' she shouldn't go. She wound up regretting it years later, but by then, she was too frail to travel. So I probably feel more connected to the English in reality.....but I'm extraordinarily fond of Celtic music, and there's something about it that makes me severely homesick for a place I've never been to.
Somewhat funny story about my grandma--her older half-brother had been mere weeks old when he came to the U.S., and nine months old when his father died, and was about two years old when his mother remarried. So he had no memories of England, his father, and when he was little, I guess he was hazy that the man he called "Daddy" was actually his stepfather. He came home from kindergarten one day and announced to his parents that when he grew up, he wanted to become President of the United States someday. He said that was the first time he fully came to understand that he was an immigrant, and therefore, not qualified to become POTUS. (He said his five-year-old self was pretty mad about that.)
There are so many descendants now that it's not a big deal, just kind of interesting. I never expected to find one and I wasn't looking for one. It happened when I was trying to trace one particular line and they were in NY state. Surprisingly they tied in with Delano and I said, "Delano?" As in Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Sure enough, that line fell right into place.
But I don't identify with that long ago side. I identify with my dirt poor mill workers who survived a meager life in the North of England until they came here. Love their foods, their dialect, their jokes. Yorkshire Pudding, anyone?
Well hello, cousin!
FDR was my great-grandmother's second cousin. Also through the Delanos.
Last edited by coschristi; 06-07-2021 at 07:29 PM..
I don't have anyone 'that' recent.On my fathers side everyone has been here at least 200 years and most of them were here in the 1600's.On my moms side her father came as a child from England 100 years ago and my grandmother was born here to Danish immigrants a couple of years after my great grandmother arrived.Enough time has elapsed that none of the countries really resemble the countries they left.
My grandmother didn't speak english until she went to school as my great grandparents only spoke danish at home as did their social circle.Despite this once she was married to my grandfather she kind of adopted my grandfathers 'English heritage' in a sense.By the time I came along she no longer remembered how to speak danish and only ate english and american foods.She read a lot of books about England and followed the goings on of the British Royal Family pretty closely...my grandfather couldn't of cared less,he wasn't born here but he was American.
I'm about 25% English/25% Danish/25% Welsh and the last 25% a mixture of Scotish/Irish and a little Dutch and Swiss.
I do enjoy reading about the history of these countries and their cultures.I really enjoy watching crime shows from these countries in their native languages.....but I like French and Australian crime shows too so a lot of that isn't heritage related.
While I find heritage and ancestry interesting I really only see myself as American.
We lived closer to my father's Italian relatives when I was a child, so I feel a greater connection than to mom's Irish background. I think it's only incidental that the Irish got here 50-some years earlier than the Italians.
I connected to my dad's side the most initially because my mom's family disowned her for marrying my dad! She's first generation American born Greek. But now I think my bond feels equal. I met my Greek family when I was 10.
Thing is; my dad's family is well documented, with immigrants from Ireland back in the 1600's & it's fascinating history. There are events that happened that could have been made into a movie. My mom's side is a dead end & many, MANY Greek Americans are having a hard time with this. Greece's vital stats were recorded & kept in the churches but for centuries when the Turks invaded; they burnt down the churches & all is lost. It's so frustrating; people with the resources to do so are frantically travelling back & forth to get word of mouth histories from villagers.
Funny thing is, is that even though my mom was 1st generation, it doesn't make me 2nd generation because I was born in Japan. Does that make my kids 1st generation all over again? Lol, I have no idea.
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