My Mayflower Ancestry - Pt 3

It is fun to study one’s maternal lines – you never know what you’ll find or where they will end up.  In our search for information on my Mom’s Allen line – we kept running into research that just wasn’t quite right.  The family story was that we were related to Ethan Allen of the Green Mountain boys from the Revolutionary War…so everyone was trying to make the Ethan Allen’s line mesh with our Adoniram Allen line…and they never worked.  It turned out that the tie was not with the Allen line but rather with their mothers…who were sisters.  It was a lesson well learned and I have found some interesting family lines on the maternal side of the family…and here is one that ties my father’s family and mother’s family together by marriage!

William White was a passenger on the Mayflower and he died on 21 Feb 1620.  Beyond that there really isn’t much more information.  He was married to a woman named Susanna and traveled on the Mayflower with his son Resolved.  Susanna White gave birth to a son named Peregrine on board the Mayflower while it was docked off of Cape Cod while the Pilgrims were trying to find a place to place their colony.  William White was one of the passengers who died on during that first winter leaving his wife with two young children to care for.  I don’t that anyone has found anything concrete on William White’s ancestry – White has to be almost as common of a name as Johnson to research.  There were a few Whites in Leiden, Holland who were possibilities, but they have been discounted.  No one knows what Susanna White’s maiden name was either.  So, she remains Susanna, wife of William White and Edward Winslow.  After the death of her husband in February, she married another widower who had lost his wife as well, Edward Winslow. 

Edward Winslow was one of the leaders of the Plymouth colony and was in fact its’ third governor.  Edward came on the Mayflower with his brother, Gilbert and his wife, Elizabeth.  Elizabeth died soon after arrival and Gilbert went back to England.  Edward married Susanna in May of 1621.  They had five children but only two lived to adulthood and had children.  Several of Edward’s brothers came within a decade, one of whom was Kenelm Winslow, my 9^th great grandfather.  So…with all of the research that Mom and I did…the only tie we ever found between my parents was when Mom’s 9^th great grandmother married Dad’s 8^th great-granduncle.  Susanna lived to be an old woman and died almost 50 years after the arrival of the Mayflower in 1680.  Edward died in 1655 while on journey to Hispaniola and was buried at sea.

Here are my lines is my line to William White & wife, Susanna.

• William White m. Susanna
• Resolved White m. Judith Vassal
• Anna White m. John Hayward
• Sarah Hayward m. David Allen
• David Allen m. Sarah Baker
• Adoniram “Teges” Allen m. Elizabeth Morris
• Morris Allen m. Rachel Bishop
• Ailey Allen m. William Kelly
• John Ward Kelly m. Melvina Robertson
• Sarah Rachel Kelly m. John Lyons Tannahill
• Oliver Richard Tannahill m. Capitola Friddle
• Betty Jean Tannahill m. Eugene Johnson
• Me!

Here is my line to Edward Winslow’s brother, Kenelm – both were sons of Edward Winslow and Magdalene Ollyver…

• Kenelm Winslow m. Eleanor Newton
• Kenelm Winslow m. Mercy Worden
• Kenelm Winslow m. Bethia Hall & Edward Winslow m. Sarah
• Hannah Winslow m. Edward Winslow (yes they were first cousins)
• Sarah Winslow m. Seth Pope
• Winslow Pope m. Mary Wheelock
• Francis Pope m. Belinda Willey
• Winslow Lonsdale Pope m. Nancy Ann Marie Lyons
• Shirlie Louisa Pope m. Ulpian Grey Johnson
• Frank Stewart Johnson m. Helen Gage
• Eugene Johnson m. Betty Tannahill
• Me!

Both of these lines were branches off of maternal lines in my family.  My advice is to not forget the women in the family.  You might find some of your most interesting ancestors!