Am I a Descendant of 3 Mayflower Passengers?

Question

Hi everyone! I have noticed a difference in relationships on Geni and here on WikiTree. According to WikiTree, I'm a Descendant of: Peter Browne, Francis Cooke, and George Soule. On Geni, there's no relationship to any of them. Which one is correct?

Answer 1

Wikitree and Geni each have their own family tree.  The differences you are finding are either a result of one tree not having the same branches filled in, or perhaps there is an error somewhere.

If you want to sort out your Mayflower line, the only way to do it is to work your way down from parent to child finding certificates of proof along the way.  If you want to join the Mayflower Society, they will ask for birth/marriage/death certificates for everyone in your line who is not already in their database. The first five (sometimes more) generations of every Mayflower passenger with known descendants has been documented by the Mayflower Society and published in the Silver Books.

I own four Silver Books, but unfortunately not for any of your proposed passengers.

Comments

Thanks Sandra! How can I get the Silver Books?

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AmericanAncestors.org is the official seller of the Silver books. You can sometimes find them used from other sellers, but be sure to get the most recent revisions if you go that route.

Also, many of them are available in public and genealogical libraries. They usually must be viewed on-site, so you'll need to find a library with them that is allowing patrons inside.

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You probably don't want to buy the Silver Books if you aren't certain of your connection.  They can be expensive. I purchased one off of Amazon, one from the Mayflower Society, and the others from Plimouth Plantation.

Silver Books and MFIP

Mayflower Families Genealogy Book – Plimoth Plantation Museum Shop

Family Search is working on a database that is based on the Silver Books and on approved Mayflower Society applications.  It's supposed to be actually reliable (unlike their other database that is a free-for-all).  Unfortunately it looks like they rushed the announcement before the database was ready.  They only have a small amount of passengers in there.  But you might get lucky.  

Mayflower Descendants • FamilySearch

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Or, you can post a request here in G2G for someone with the Silver Book for your ancestor to check your line.  I am sure there is someone out there who has what you are looking for.

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Thanks for the advice, S!

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I might have to post a request for the lookups here on G2G.

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The Silver books generally go from the Mayflower passengers down 4 generations or so. The 5th generation and sometimes part of the 6th can be found on American Ancestors website. Those generations are likely to be quite accurate on WikiTree. The connections between the 5th generation down to you will probably require either a previous member’s application, or your own research and documentation to prove.

Have you noticed on WikiTree if any of the relationships show as Uncertain between you and the Mayflower passengers? They could require more research.

Good luck.

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Thanks!

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For the descendants of George Soule use the “Pink Books, “ or the Mayflower Families in Progress series. The Soule Silver Book is obsolete.

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George, why is the Soule Silver Book obsolete?

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New research, now a little old, was published in the Mayflower Families in Progress. This is six volumes of paperback books that were published peliminary to a major revision of the George Soule Silver Book. This is what the Soule Kindred website states:

One of the earliest volumes to appear (vol. 3 [1981]) was the descendants of George Soule, and was the work of John E. Soule and Milton E. Terry.  While it was a painstaking operation, it suffered from the change in genealogical standards that was occurring at just about that time; it very quickly became clear that this book was not adequate to substantiate the identities and families of George Soule’s descendants.  Starting in the 1990s, Louise Throop began documenting the lines with substantial further research, and published several soft cover volumes officially called Mayflower Families in Progress (MFIP), but more colloquially known as “Pink Books” because their covers are the hue of the “may flower.”  

This is the list of the Soule Pink Books:

• George Soule, Four Generations (family numbers 1-241), revision of original Volume 3, originally compiled by John E. Soule and Milton E. Terry, revised by Louise Walsh Throop, MBA. 7th Edition published 2015 by GSMD.
• Part 1 (family numbers 230-349), fifth and sixth generation descendants Compiled by Louise Walsh Throop, MBA.  Published 2000 by GSMD.
• Part 2 (family numbers 350-464), fifth and sixth generation descendants Compiled by Louise Walsh Throop, MBA.  Published 2002 by GSMD.
• Part 3 (family numbers 465-551), fifth and sixth generation descendants Compiled by Louise Walsh Throop, MBA.  Published 2003 by GSMD.
• Part 4 (family numbers 552-636), fifth and sixth generation descendants Compiled by Louise Walsh Throop, MBA.  Published 2005 by GSMD.
• Part 5 (family numbers 637-763), fifth and sixth generation descendants Compiled by Louise Walsh Throop, MBA.  Published 2008 by GSMD.

Edit ....

The Pink Books May be purchased from the Mayflower Society. The first of the set $20, and the other five are $12 each.

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Thanks for the info.

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The Anchorage Library has all of the Mayflower Society Silver Books in its reference section.

Answer 2

Use the Relationship to me on wikitree for each of them and then compare to what you are seeing on Geni.  Some relationship is different between the 2 sites.

Comments

Hi Linda! :) Thanks for your response. On WikiTree, it shows the relationship paths to them but on Geni whrn I click on relationship to me, it says "no blood relationship found".

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I don't know how Geni works, but I would assume that you should be able to follow the ancestor path from yourself back to each person on geni, as you can do on wikitree, from each profile. If you went back to each previous ancestor as seen in the relationship on wikitree, you would find what ancestor is missing, I would think.  I know that on ancestry you can do that.

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Thanks Linda, I'll check it out.

Answer 3

Greta,

Sorry to say that Geni is correct.  You are not descended from any of these 3 Mayflower passengers.  The problem is that on WikiTree your ancestral couple Esther Sampson and Thomas Hamilton has an error as to who her parents were.  Your Esther Sampson is NOT the child of Obadiah Sam(p)son and Mary Soule.  Your Esther Sampson was born ca 1730 in Tennessee.

Obadiah Sam(p)son and Mary Soule had a daughter Esther/Easter.  She was born 12 Nov 1749 in Middleboro, Massachusetts. She married Isaac Bryant. They had several children in Middleboro, and Esther died there on 8 Feb 1822.

This is according to the current George Soule Mayflower Society  "pink" books.  The Peter Brown and Francis Cooke Mayflower Society current "silver" books only list Esther's name, birth date, and birth place....not who she married.

Comments

Hi Jerri! :) Thanks for looking this up for me. I really appreciate it.