Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol. 1 and 2

This database contains birth and death details for descendants of passengers on the Mayflower extracted from the files of George Ernest Bowman.

Historical Background

George Ernest Bowman, founder of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants in 1896, compiled more than 20,000 pages of research on descendants of the original Mayflower colonists. Susan E. Roser has extracted the birth and death details contained in the database from Bowman’s files.

Volume one contains descendants from 12 Mayflower families (Alden–Fuller), while volume two traces descendants from 11 (Hopkins–Winslow). Together, the two volumes include details on about 50,000 Mayflower descendants, often extending to the seventh or eighth generation. Roser has made a particular effort to include sources and has noted corrections to Bowman’s research in footnotes.

What You Can Find in the Records

Details contained in the entries vary but may include the following:

• name
• relationship
• parents’ names
• spouse’s name
• birth date
• birth place
• death date
• death place

Using the Records

You can find details on reading the entries in the author’s introduction. You’ll also find the following abbreviations in the entries:

• ChR – church records
• LR – land records
• PCR – Plymouth Colony records
• PR – probate records
• TR – town records
• VR – vital records
• MD – Mayflower descendent
• MQ – Mayflower Quarterly
• NEHGR – New England Historical and Genealogical Register
• TG – The Genealogist
• TAG – The American Genealogist
• adm. – administration
• Co. – colony
• cem. – cemetery
• dau – daughter
• g.s. – gravestone
• hus – husband
• inv. – inventory
• prob. – probate
• rec. – recorded
• wit. – witness

Often the dates in this collection, especially the death dates, are approximate or are given as a range. Dates should be considered estimated dates and, if possible, checked against other sources. If two death dates were given, one from a will and one from an administration, we have used the administration date as the death date in our index.

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