I haven’t blogged much lately because I have been busy doing some genealogical research.\u00a0 I have learned a lot more about my forebearers than I ever knew before. I may be related to old Scottish royalty. Pretty cool.<\/p>\n
But Jett’s family has been even more interesting.<\/p>\n
I have gotten almost nowhere on her mother’s Irish side.\u00a0 And her paternal grandmother – an English war bride from WW II – is also a blank slate.\u00a0 But the rest of her paternal lineage is fascinating.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And 95% arrived before 1650.\u00a0 I would characterize that lineage as “purebred Pilgrim” and the founding fathers of most of New England.\u00a0 I had documented members of her family who were original settlers of the Massachusetts towns of\u00a0Salem, Watertown, Concord, Lexington and Bridgewater and the Maine town of Kittery.\u00a0 And, yes, Plymouth and Boston, too.<\/p>\n
She is descended from not one but at least 5 of the 45 passengers of the Mayflower<\/em> who survived the trip and the horrific first winter.\u00a0 She is a direct descendant of John Alden, arguably one of the most famous of the 45.\u00a0 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<\/a>. 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?”<\/p>\n I told Jett that, with this lineage, she is as close to royalty as we get in America.<\/p>\n I am sure she will remind me of that frequently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I haven’t blogged much lately because I have been busy doing some genealogical research.\u00a0 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 … Continue reading