A study of my wife's geneology had uncovered some disturbing facts.

[Mr.Bill]

It seems her ancestors were part of a radical religious cult that was in open opposition to the government. After fleeing to another country for awhile, they came to North America. After arriving they were involved in many crimes against the established people there. It began with theft of food and land and eventually culminated in murder and beheading.

You guessed it, my wife's ancestors were on the Mayflower.

[monmouth4]

1. She can now, if she isn't already, a proud member of the Daughters of the American Revolution..n/t

[Mr.Bill]

5. She's actually looking into that.

Her granddaughter is especially interested. I wonder if they have any other half Iranian members. (My granddaughter's dad is Persian.)

[MADem]

20. VERY cool!

Not quite a Marian Anderson moment--I think they're a bit more sophisticated these days--but that would definitely add a little 'sabzi' to the meal!!

[csziggy]

7. Being descended from Mayflower passengers is not the same as DAR patriot ancestors

While there is a good chance that there may be DAR patriots in the family, the DAR requires proof of lineage to a person who either fought or who provided support to the Americans in the revolution.

From the genealogical research done by my (paternal) grandmother (who joined DAR in 1911), my mother (who joined in 1960) and my sister (who joined in 1968) I can prove descent from seventeen patriots including two women. So I am quite familiar with the requirements for DAR membership, even though I was only a member because my mother paid the fees to get the catastrophic insurance they used to offer. Genealogy remains one of my interests but these days I try to find where my ancestors originally came from and to fill out the details of their lives and why they moved to the places they lived.

On the other hand none of my lines have been proven to go back to any passenger of the first voyage of the Mayflower so I am not eligible to be a member of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (https://www.themayflowersociety.org/). I do have ancestors who moved to the Plymouth Colony in later voyages, just none so far proven in that first landing.

[1monster]

11. Concur. My husband's ancestors were also on the Mayflower. It is the Mayflower Society.

Though we never bothered signing up.

[Freddie]

16. At least one of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution

...on the wrong side. Paternal grandmother had a Hessian soldier great-something who settled in Reading PA and never went back to Germany. Apparently quite a few of them did this.

[Mendocino]

23. I had an Hessian ancestor

who was captured at Valley Forge, flipped over to the colonists side for the duration, stayed here after the war. One thing about mercs, they aren't too particular about who they fight for.

[1939]

35. The Hessian individual soldiers weren't really mercenaries

They were part of the Hessian ruler's army that he rented out to the Brits.

[csziggy]

24. Some movie star found out he had an ancestor who was a Hessian

Who ended supporting the Americans once his contract with the British ran out. Maybe Rob Lowe? Yes: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2137024/Rob-Lowes-shocking-past-Actor-learns-descendant-European-soldier-fought-American-independence.html

We're trying to sort out an ancestor of my husband's. His mother traced the line back to David Hare who lived in Clinton County, New York, right on the border with Canada. One possibility for his father is a man who became a Tory, Stephen Hare, moved to Canada and had a descendant who became Prime Minister. Another is a more obscure possible father is an man, Daniel Hare, who stayed in New York and it is unclear if he fought in the Revolution or just stayed on the sidelines.

My husband's DNA test shows he is related to the Canadian branch. Another person who traces back to David Hare did a DNA test on her son and it shows he is related to the American Hare. Since the two men could have been brothers, the DNA is not helping sort this out!

[dorkzilla]

29. I have Mayflower ancestors and am in the DAR

Haven’t joined the Mayflower Society yet, not sure I will. My DAR patriot fought at Lexington Concord with a regiment from Scituate MA...almost all of whom bear my surname but my patriot does not!

I suggest though that the OP, if his wife does want to join the DAR if she pokes around she will eventually find the DAR connection...from the Mayflower to about the Fortune and a few ships hence, if you scratch around you’ll find most of us are related. In fact, I’m certain that most of the people here on this thread that are also Mayflower ancestors probably are related to your wife in some way.

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. Wasnt that group very racist?

[csziggy]

2. While I don't have confirmed Mayflower ancestors

I do have a lot of ancestors who joined those on the Mayflower, as well as Quaker radicals from various parts of Ireland and England, French Huguenots, and German Palatines. I'm descended from a wide variety of religious extremists!

[Blaukraut]

3. So did my husband's.

Thankfully, the religiosity has disappeared over the centuries, although one of his ancestors was the founder of the Methodist church in Massachusetts.

[Brother Buzz]

18. Not all the passengers on the Mayflower were into that religiosity stuff

There were 'Saints' and 'Strangers'. I'm descended from two Strangers, and one Saint (a female non signer of the Compact).

[Blaukraut]

33. M husband's ancestor were John Howland and Elizabeth Tilly (very prolific breeders)

Not sure if they were considered strangers or saints. His ancestor who helped found the methodist church in MA was Capt. John Hawes.

[madamesilverspurs]

4. Same here, both sides of the family.

Upside: We're distantly related to Sidney Biddle Barrows, aka the "Mayflower Madam".

[Mr.Bill]

6. My wife's ancestor was William Brewster.

He was one of the religious leaders on the Mayflower.

[madamesilverspurs]

15. Rev. Brewster

is on my mother's side. Looks like your wife is my distant cousin!

[abelenkpe]

32. My mother is as well

[HereSince1628]

8. LOL, MY ancestors got pissed at YOUR ancestors; fled Mass. and founded THE HAMPTONS!!!!!!

Well, Southampton specifically, and then East Hampton.

The Swamps of Lynne vs THE Hamptons. You figure out if staying in the swamps was even close to a good choice.

Americans -are- splitters. It's our way. Just like protestant denominations. We split at the first sign of difference.

And if you don't believe me, tough! I'm taking my ball home and you can try to have a discussion without it!!!!!!

[csziggy]

12. Some of mine were kicked out or left on their own.

Anne Hutchinson, for instance, that both my husband and I trace back to (as do George Bush and Mitt Romney). I might go back to Roger Williams who founded Rhode Island, the only early colony with no state sanctioned religion.

Though most of mine and my husband's ancestors were Quakers. One of my Quaker family arrived in Pennsylvania in 1682 before William Penn himself arrived. That family bought their land from Penn when he was peddling it in Ireland. One of the sons testified in later life about being on the dock when Penn's ship sailed in.

More of my ancestors continued to be kicked out of various places even in the American colonies. Some were thrown out of both Pennsylvania and Virginia for being Baptists. Quite a few were thrown or forced out of Massachusetts for not following the church leaders or obeying the rules.

And there were the ones that simply left a church because they didn't like the policies - Charles Crow leaving the Bush River Baptist Church when they prohibited ministers and deacons from owning slaves. Or the ones who were excommunicated - Aaron Harlan who was thrown out of the Quaker meeting his father provided the land and money to provide a building for after his first child was born only seven months after he was married. One of the Aaron Harlans (there were several generations of the same name) later moved to the Carolinas where his son was set out of the Quaker community for becoming a Regulator and later fighting in the American Revolution.

[HereSince1628]

14. I don't mean this as an indictment, but as an observation...

protestants -protest-. The sense of personal right to choice is an integral part of the dream of protestantism.

So, I am not surprise at all that your family felt the need to move from one place to another many times in search of a community where they could finally 'fit in'.

I am not at all sure that culture allows people to long belong to any community.

[csziggy]

25. What is interesting is that many of the people moved as groups

I have families that lived in the same part of South Carolina, were members of the same church and intermarried there. When the Mississippi Territory opened up many of those families moved together to the part that became Alabama, went to the same churches and continued to intermarry.

The German Palatines did the same thing though by the time our ancestors moved to Alabama they had begun marrying out of their community. Apparently there is still a German identity in a section of South Carolina that is still distinct.

As a result with all those close relationships I have a LOT of first and second cousins who married. It's pretty amazing that wasn't a lot of defects bred into those families! In fact my mother's parents were first cousins and had thirteen children, all of whom lived into their eighties and nineties and lived long and full lives.

[REP]

9. Johnny-come-latelys. My ancestor was at Jamestown (and survived)

Another branch was in America pre-Revolution and was in the Continental Army and New Jersey Minutemen. One is my g(x) grandfather; the other his brother. Their grandchildren married, producing the great great grandfather whose discharge from the Union Army I have hanging on my wall.

Being a descendent of a Continental Army member or Miniuteman gives you the right to join DAR, not being on the Mayflower.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. Mine were Quakers.

Also a bunch of radicals, although generally peaceful ones.

[bluedigger]

13. Oh, is that all?

I thought there would be door buzzards.

[DFW]

17. Mine were all sorts of colorful characters

Some were failed Mississippi river boat gamblers who fled to New York City to escape their debts. One was a crafty immigrant lawyer who defended the bad guys in the 1911 Triangle shirt factory fire trial. One was Fiorello La Guardia's labor liason whom La Guardia fired for being too friendly to labor. She later went on to raise funds for a Senate race for the then-Mayor of Minneapolis (Hubert Humphrey--the Minnesota Democratic Mafia, as they were called in DC, were friends of our family ever since). Her husband, born into poverty in South Carolina, became deputy mayor of New York City.

The usual mix of whatever

[Mr.Bill]

21. Some of my wife's ancestors participated in the Salem Witch Trials.

On both the prosecution and the defense.

[csziggy]

26. Same here - though at least one recanted his decision along with the rest of the jury

It seems once the fervor died down he and his other jurors regretted their conviction of the woman as a witch, went back to the court and changed their verdict.

On the other hand, one of my ancestors convicted a woman to death which was carried out. What's interesting is that his grandson married the granddaughter of the so-called witch.

I like the guy who came to his senses more than a lot of my ancestors!

[NightWatcher]

19. Undocumented immigrant eh?

[historylovr]

22. Ha! Good one.

One of mine was as well.

[dorkzilla]

27. HEY wait a minute SO WERE MINE.

We didn’t behead anyone. As to the land and food...um, yeah.

[Mr.Bill]

30. Two years after the Pilgrims landed

Miles Standish cut the head off an Indian Chief and placed it on a pike at the entrance to the fort where the Pilgrims resided.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-zimmerman-beheading-history-20140929-story.html

[dorkzilla]

31. I know...but I'm not related to him :)

We did steal their food but one of their offspring got back at one of my great grandfathers and murdered him. RIP Isaac C, but you lot had it coming.

[tammywammy]

28. I'm related to Pierre Joubert. He fought in the American Revolution

He was part of the Acadians that settled in Louisiana. I could join DAR, but have no interest in it.

[HeiressofBickworth]

34. I was not shocked to learn that Darth Cheney

is descended from a Salem witch (Susannah North Martin, hanged 1692). Seems fitting.

I, too, am descended from the very same Susannah North Martin.

That means that I am distantly related to Cheney.

I think I need a shower now...

[madokie]

36. Some of my ancestors are of the same group

partly why I'm a non-believer in anything god today

[Facility Inspector]

38. The Mayflower must have been bigger than Noah's Ark

for so many to have so many ancestors aboard it.

Not saying you're not on the level, but it's kinda like all the people who claimed they were native americans back in the 70s.

In any event, congrats(?) on your discovery.