A Journal of Pilgrim Genealogy & History
About Mayflower Descendant
Mayflower Descendant—a journal of Pilgrim genealogy and history—is one of the most highly respected scholarly journals in the field of genealogy. The result of an agreement with the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants (MSMD), American Ancestors assumed a ten-year stewardship of the venerable journal in 2015. American Ancestors is now in its tenth and final year of publishing Mayflower Descendant.
First published in 1899 by George Ernest Bowman, founder of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, which published the journal until 2014, Mayflower Descendant has long been a highly regarded source of scholarship relating to Mayflower families and their genealogies, their origins in England, and their lives and places of residence in America, from the earliest settlements to their migrations north and westward. Under American Ancestors, Mayflower Descendant continued to be a significant source of genealogical and historical scholarship.
Topics explored:
- Further genealogical analysis of Pilgrim families in New England and their origins in England and the Netherlands.
- Towns in Plymouth Colony, England, and the Netherlands with which Pilgrims are associated (similar to items in The Great Migration Newsletter).
- Genealogical summaries of families in eastern Massachusetts into which Mayflower descendants married, with which they were often associated, or which bore Pilgrim surnames.
- Mayflower families beyond the fifth generation, often in locations beyond eastern Massachusetts (the “Mayflower diaspora”).
- Further record transcription from eastern Massachusetts or from areas into which Mayflower descendants moved.
Vol. 73, No. 2 Now Available
Subscribe now to receive both issues for 2025!
See below for a preview of Vol. 73, No. 2.
Volume 73, No. 2, Summer 2025
The 1584 Arbitration Between James Chilton and John Chilton
Thad Thomas and Susan Thomas
The Puzzle of Isabel Chilton’s Name
Susan R. Thomas
Was John Rickard’s Wife Mary Snow the Granddaughter of Peter Brown? DNA Results Offer Additional Evidence
Laura Smith, Margo Moffatt, Pamala Smith, Susan Abanor, Kenneth Whittemore, and Heather Horton
Descendants of Giles1 Rickard of Plymouth Colony (continued from Vol. 72 [2024]:44)
Edward Charles Horton
Francis Curtis of Plymouth 1671 and Three Generations of His Family (continued from Vol. 72 [2024]:21)
William Utermohlen
Proposed Parentage of Penelope White, Wife of John Trask of Rochester, Massachusetts
Eldon Wilson Gay
Missing Children of Mayflower Descendants: The Family of Hannah Delano and Samson Wetherell
Tricia Dingwall Thompson and Diane Preston Baker
Deborah Soule, Wife of Isaac Savage: Daughter of Ezekiel Soule and Hannah Delano
Raymond T. Wing
Descendants of Rufus Kinney of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia: A Standish, Doty, Soule, and Hopkins Descendant
Richard Hall
The John and Henrietta (Casey) Croucher Family of Newport County, Rhode Island, and Bristol County, Massachusetts: A Billington Line
Sally Wood and John Bradley Arthaud
Wellfleet Vital Records, 1763–1844 (continued from Vol. 73 [2025]:112)
Andrew P. Langlois
Eastham and Truro [Mass.] Town Records, 1671–1783 (continued from Vol. 71 [2023]:93)
Peter Burgess
Seen Elsewhere in 2023–2024
Scott Andrew Bartley
An Addition to The Mayflower 500
Gary Boyd Roberts
How to Subscribe
Subscriptions for 2025 are now available! You can purchase subscriptions from our bookstore. American Ancestors members and GSMD members receive 20% off the subscription price.
Search the Database
Mayflower Descendant was first published by the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants in 1899. It is an essential source of information on many New England families, and its focus is not limited to those with Mayflower lineage. The journal includes transcriptions and abstracts of deeds, wills, vital records, and other original documents. In addition, it features compiled genealogies and analytical studies of genealogical problems.The database covers volumes 1 to 68 (1899 to 1935, 1937 and 1985-2020, The journal did not publish in 1936 or between 1938 and 1984.). The database includes more than 350,000 records.
