On Board the Mayflower

 Happy  Thanksgiving!  

The Pilgrims celebrated the very first Thanksgiving 399 years ago in 1621.  After a very hard first year in the colony, the people had much to be thankful for.  Those that had survived the first winter in cold, snowy Massachusetts, a first harvest, and their new friends, the Native Americans who shared the celebration with them.  

2020 has been a very hard year.  A pandemic that has killed about 200,000 Americans; a very contentious presidential campaign; more racial division and violence that we could have thought possible; and for a lot of us, being unable to share Thanksgiving with our loved ones due to the fear of getting our elderly parents and grandparents or other health compromised family and friends sick.  Yet, each and every one has something to be thankful for this year.  Zoom.  Without it, we wouldn't even be able to see our family members' faces.  Food and a home.  At least we still have foot to eat and a roof over our heads.  Pets.  Miniature, fur-covered, full of personality someones who are here with us day in and day out to keep the loneliness at bay.    

I am also grateful for connections.  Connections to the past and where and who I come from.  Connections with "new" cousins around the country.  Connections with historical events and times.  It helps history come alive for me.  

Last weekend, I made an exciting discovery that has really made me realize the roots my family and I have put down in the United States.   I discovered that I am a direct descendent of someone who came over on the Mayflower in 1620.  

Let me just say that the possibility of being a Mayflower descendent never occurred to me.  Most of my family lines are from the southern U.S. and came into the country through Virginia.  But this is where it is handy to have "Yankee" ancestors!  The possibility was there.  Plus the New England colonies kept better records.  

I use a lot of Ancestry hints to help me with my research.  So while I was going through some hints last weekend, one came up that mentioned the Mayflower.  I was like, "What?!"  The last name was Snow, and that did sound familiar.  So I looked up the surname Snow in my Family Tree Maker 2019 database and there was Hannah Snow.  And I could trace her ancestors back to the Mayflower.  Then I searched for a list of passengers on the Mayflower on MayflowerHistory.com - still not believing it was possible.  Oh but it was.  My 10th great-grandfather and his daughter, my 9th great-grandmother, came over on the Mayflower.  

Here's the line from me all the way back:

Mary Elizabeth Tapley (me!)

Linda Irene Tapley (my mother)

Ethel Irene Ranney (1913-1973) (my grandmother)

Luther Boardman Ranney (1870-1943) (great-grandfather)

Comfort Ranney (1838-1920) (2nd great-grandfather)

Luther Boardman Ranney (1809-1890) (3rd great-grandfather)

Elizabeth Hubbard (1790-1868) (4th great-grandmother)

Thomas Hubbard II (1750-1803) (5th great-grandfather)

Hannah Snow (1720-1756) (6th great-grandmother)

Ebenezer Snow (unknown-1725) (7th great-grandfather)

Stephen Snow (bef. 1648-1705) (8th great-grandfather)

Constance Hopkins (abt. 1606-1677) (9th great-grandmother) came over on the Mayflower with her father, step-mother, and two siblings.

Stephen Hopkins (abt. 1581-1644) (10th great-grandfather) came over on the Mayflower with his wife and 3 children.  A 4th child was born during the voyage.  

Wow.  That's all I know to say.  Wow.

That's not all.  It turns out that Stephen Hopkins lived quite the life.  There is even a book written about him that I immediately ordered.  The book, Here Shall I Die Ashore - Stephen Hopkins: Bermuda Castaway, Jamestown Survivor, and Mayflower Pilgrim, was written by Caleb Johnson.  I haven't read it yet, but it teases even more on the back cover:

"By the time he {Stephen} turned forty, he had already survived a hurricane, been shipwrecked in the Bermuda Triangle, been written into a Shakespearean play, witnessed the famine and abandonment of Jamestown Colony, and participated in the marriage of Pocahontas.  He was once even sentenced to death! He got himself and his family onto the Pilgrims' Mayflower, and helped found Plymouth Colony. He signed the Mayflower Compact, lodged the famous Squanto in his house, participated in the legendary Thanksgiving, and helped guide and govern the early colonists."

Again, wow!  Can't wait to read the book!  

I will be writing and sharing more once I read the book and other information about the voyage and the Plymouth Colony.