Unbelievably, things seem to be progressing.
For the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's arrival, the Society has put its members' applications online, so if you want to apply, you should first look to see if anyone in your family already has. Then, say, if someone has already proved descent down to, say, your great-grandmother, all you have to do is prove your descent from your great-grandmother. (see West and Presbury-Mayflower Pedigree charts)
Plimoth Patuxet Museum, 2019The Mayflower Descendants Through Five Generations, known as the Silver Books, document from passenger Richard Warren to his great-great-granddaughter Mary Presbury and her husband Thomas West. Since they lived in the early 1700s, surely some of their descendants have applied. Their oldest child, William West, is well-documented in many records, from his birth on Martha's Vineyard to his immigration to Nova Scotia to being a founding father in Kings County. Since William and his wife Jean are the great-great-grandparents of Canada's first premier, Sir Charles Tupper, surely there is extensive documentation of their children.
Mary Presbury was born in Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard on August 28, 1694. (which, hey, transposed is my birth year, 1964). Yes, the New Englanders kept amazingly detailed records, one reason why genealogy used to be a hobby only for rich snobby WASPs. When Mary married Thomas West, the West family was the VIP family of Martha's Vineyard. Her father-in-law, also named Thomas, was a doctor and an attorney; his grave is still visited.
HERE LYES BURIED
THE BODY OF
DOCtr. THOMAS WEST
DIED SEP Y 6th
1706
IN THE 60th
YEAR OF HIS AGE
(The angel with wings at the top is a very old and therefore very rare design in North American gravestones)
Mary's husband Thomas was a mariner, pilot, and innholder at Martha's Vineyard. He had sailed to the West Indies and returned to the ship's home port in Rhode Island (I knew our ancestors were seafarers, but I had no idea they traveled that far), when he died of something he had gotten in the West Indies, either a disease or a wound. He was only 40.
Mary Presbury West must have died later that year, because her father was named as guardian of the 8 children in court papers. Their children ranged in age from 14 to 2. The grandfather died 2 years later, and then I don't know what they did.
William West was the oldest. He married his cousin Jean West, daughter of his father's brother Abner. Her name may have been spelled J-a-n-e, but I like Jean better. It's unusual.
William and Jean and their 10 children immigrated to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, with the Planter Migration. Their last 2 kids were born in Cornwallis. William, their son Jabez, and Jean's brother Stephen West were among the original grantees of the town.
So you would think that there are plenty of descendants to apply. Well, 15 or 20 have. Some of them are descendants of Jabez, a sea captain who left Cornwallis to settle in Maine. Others are descended from William and Jean's kids Cyrus, Deborah, and Elizabeth. (Yes, the Elizabeth who became Mrs. Tupper, but none of Sir Charles's descendants have applied.) The applications were made anywhere from the 1930s to 1960s.
But no, none are descended from our guy, William and Jean's son Seth. So that means that we still have to prove our ancestry all the way back to William and Jean.
However! The historian has located an application of an anonymous (to me) descendant of William and Jean's son Seth's son Samuel's son George West. So, it is proven to the satisfaction of the Mayflower Society that George West is Samuel's son, and Samuel is Seth's son, and Seth is William's son.
If I have now confused you completely, remember this page:
(The numbers on top of the names mean the generation. So, Samuel West is the son of Seth, grandson of William, great-grandson of Thomas, etc.)
And remember that I neglected to write down the name of the book. What I have done is asked the Kings County Genealogical Society to find it for me.
And! The historian tells me that this application from George's children used a book called West Lines by Margaret Adelia West Ells. It is in the Library of Congress. Fat lot of good that does me, since the Library of Congress is COVID-closed. So I checked with the Library of Virginia, which is open. They are getting it for me thru inter-library loan from some library in Canada, which, incredibly, seems to be open!
Stay tuned!
https://www.americanancestors.org/search/databasesearch/2731/general-society-of-mayflower-descendants-membership-applications-1620-1920
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/1st-hand-account-of-plymouth-colony-reprinted-for-400th-anniversary/2236276/
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