Dear Kinfolk,

Are we descendents of the Mayflower pilgrims?

It got a little exciting today as I traced our Guernsey lineage to John Alden and Priscilla Mullins.  Do you remember in school studying Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem THE COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH?   Well, it now has some special meaning.

Priscilla Mullins is known to literary history as the love of newly widowed Miles Standish.  According to the poem, Standish asked his good friend John Alden to propose to Priscilla, on his behalf, only to have Priscilla ask, “why don’t you speak for yourself, John?”  Longfellow must have known the story first hand, as he was a direct descendant of John and Priscilla.  (Information taken from Wikipedia.)

Priscilla was most likely born in Dorking in Surrey, England, the daughter of William and Alice Mullins.  She was a seventeen-year-old girl when she boarded the Mayflower with her parents.  When I checked the passenger list of the Mayflower, it listed John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, her parents William and Alice Mullins and her brother Joseph.  Unfortunately, her parents and brother died the first winter in Plymouth.  John and Priscilla were reported to be the third marriage in the Plymouth Colony of Pilgrims.

John Alden and Priscilla Mullins

So, what is our Guernsey lineage to John and Priscilla?  You must follow our paternal line of Elmer Guernsey (James, John) to James Garnsey, born 1758.  Then we trace his maternal lineage, his mother Elizabeth Bowen, his grandmother Barbara Martin, his great grand mother March Thurber*, his gg grandmother Priscilla Alden and his ggggrandmother Priscilla Mullins.

*I have to admit the weakest link in this research was Marcy Thurber,  our 7-g grandmother.  Checking Ancestry.com I found four different family trees showing Marcy as the daughter of John and Priscilla.  Then I found four family trees that omitted Marcy’s name.  I will continue to search for birth certificates, records, etc.  Your help would be appreciated, someday we may be listed as Descendents of the Mayflower!

John Alden - Mayflower - Plymouth

The picture at the top of my blog was taken in my backyard.  In the past week we have had two major snow storms.  The picture below shows the same scene today.

Backyard and frozen lake

Hope you are well and warm,

Jim