![\"Women](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/first-thanksgiving-pilgrims-plymouth-meal.jpg\")
<\/a>Women serving men even before football was on TV<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n I know.\u00a0 Thanksgiving is over.\u00a0 <\/strong>Our collective minds have turned to “The Holidays”, which means most of you are buying presents, trimming trees or dipping into the egg nog.\u00a0 After looking at the\u00a0crowds on Black Friday apparently a lot of people were “dipping”.\u00a0 For many of you the only remnant of Thanksgiving\u00a0you want to think about is that last slice of pumpkin pie\u00a0<\/strong>you’re hoping no one remembers is still in the fridge so you can sneak-eat it at 3 a.m.\u00a0 But I’ve been giving a lot of thought to Thanksgiving lately – specifically the Pilgrims<\/strong> – so\u00a0I am dragging out the holiday for one more week.\u00a0 The reason:\u00a0 I am doing\u00a0extensive research on our Pilgrim ancestors\u00a0in my quest to join the Mayflower Society<\/strong>.\u00a0 Why<\/em> would I want to join the Mayflower Society?\u00a0 Well, first, because I love history\u00a0and the society’s chief aim is to preserve our early heritage.\u00a0 But more importantly, recent world events have me thinking about what it means to be an American.\u00a0 How did we start?\u00a0 What were our\u00a0founding beliefs and principles?\u00a0 And just who were these people who left hearth and home to board a rickety ship and sail off to an unknown land?\u00a0 My previous research has unearthed that we are related to\u00a0five of the\u00a0families that took that courageous step and were passengers on the Mayflower.\u00a0 The 102 passengers on the ship were almost evenly divided between the “saints” and the “strangers”.\u00a0 The saints were religious dissenters who left England for Holland and\u00a0eventually America.\u00a0 The strangers were merchants, tradesmen or indentured servants.\u00a0 There were also a few “dodgy” sorts<\/strong> who were fleeing the law.\u00a0 Amazingly, our ancestors were all saints.\u00a0 I have to say I was a little disappointed to learn that – I was hoping to have a good scoundrel in our background to make things a bit more interesting.<\/p>\n The Mayflower<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n The Mayflower Society wants me to prove our lineage, which I suppose is a reasonable request.\u00a0 There are over 30,000,000 possible descendants world-wide but only 27,000 have joined the group.\u00a0 I suspect that’s because they require actual documentation<\/strong>, not just some letter from old Aunt Sally that’s been handed down through the years.\u00a0\u00a0One has to submit marriage licenses, birth certificates and\/or death notices.\u00a0 Heretofore (meaning before the internet) obtaining all of those documents was an almost impossible task.\u00a0 Trust me, it’s still a pain to document and verify everything but as the “family historian” I figure it’s my job.\u00a0 Plus,\u00a0it turns out that if a relative has joined the Society then any direct relatives can join without having to prove<\/strong>\u00a0much more than you’ve fought over a drumstick at Thanksgiving or you’ve both tolerated Drunk Uncle at Christmas.\u00a0 So I’m hopeful that if I go through the process of “showing them our stinkin’ badges” that some future member of our family will be more willing to take up the mantle of family historian.\u00a0\u00a0Luckily in 2011 I joined Ancestry.com<\/strong> and used their documentation to write our family history dating back to the Pilgrims.\u00a0\u00a0That’s the good news.\u00a0 The bad news is that I have kept my membership in Ancestry since then in anticipation of writing our family’s European history.\u00a0 But one thing or another has kept me from doing the research – mostly due to my borderline A.D.D and my inability to stare at a computer screen for hours.\u00a0 As a result,\u00a0I have paid those nice people at Ancestry $960 in the past several\u00a0years for\u00a0… nothing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Which I think is their business model – rope in people with good intentions<\/strong> and lazy attitudes and the bottom line looks pretty good.<\/p>\n William Brewster – not voted Class Clown<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n But back to the task at hand (you can see how I get distracted)… in doing the research in 2011 I found that my maternal great-grandmother’s family<\/strong>\u00a0has formed an elaborate organization.\u00a0 Genealogy, it seems, has become the second most popular hobby in the world, right after gardening.\u00a0 That’s right – the study of dead people<\/strong> is more popular than golf or stamp collecting.\u00a0\u00a0As it turns out, many families have their own organizations and websites and it was through my great-grandmother’s family website that I first learned of our Pilgrim connections.\u00a0 I’m hoping that a lot of the genealogy geeks<\/strong> in that organization have already joined the Mayflower Society so that all I’ll have to prove is my direct lineage from her.\u00a0 Heck, I’ve got pictures of her with my mother so that should count for something.\u00a0 Hopefully there isn’t any sort of “blackballing” or personality test<\/strong> required.\u00a0 Our mom said that her grandmother, although civic-minded and philanthropic, was something of a pistol.\u00a0 And not in a good way – she was domineering, opinionated and humorless.\u00a0 It may run in the family.\u00a0 One of our Pilgrim ancestors was William Brewster<\/strong>, who was the spiritual leader on the Mayflower, and was said to have many of\u00a0those same traits.\u00a0 On the other hand, Sarah Palin<\/strong> is also descended from Brewster, so maybe he did have a sense of humor after all.<\/p>\n In any event, I have submitted my application<\/strong> to the Mayflower Society and they tell me it will take 3-6 weeks to see if I’m “qualified” to join.\u00a0 There’s a small part of me that hopes they send a response informing me\u00a0that our ancestors were actually horse thieves<\/strong> and had no part in the Mayflower.\u00a0 Then I can take up gardening\u00a0and finally cancel that subscription to Ancestry.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson I know.\u00a0 Thanksgiving is over.\u00a0 Our collective minds have turned to “The Holidays”, which means most of you are buying presents, trimming trees or dipping into the egg nog.\u00a0 After looking at the\u00a0crowds on Black Friday … read more<\/a><\/a>