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The General Society of Mayflower Descendants
Mayflower Society Museum.jpg
Mayflower House Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts
Formation 1897
Headquarters Plymouth, Massachusetts
Membership
Over 31,000

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants — commonly called the Mayflower Society — is a hereditary organization of individuals who have documented their descent from at least one of the 102 passengers who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Society was founded at Plymouth in 1897.

Organization

A primary goal of the Society is to educate the public about the role of the Pilgrims in the early history of what would later become the United States of America. There are Mayflower societies in all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada.

Today, it is estimated that up to tens of millions of Americans have at least one ancestor who was among this group of early settlers. Any person able to document their descent from one or more of the Mayflower Pilgrims is eligible to apply for membership in the Mayflower Society. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants is listed as an approved lineage society with the Hereditary Society Community of the United States of America.

List of Pilgrims with known descendants

The Pilgrims by Florence Earle Coates Thomas Whitney Surette 1900
The Pilgrims
Hymn written for the PA Society in 1900

This is a list of Mayflower Pilgrims who are known to have living descendants:

Notable members

  • Ada Brown, American judge
  • Anna Matilda Larrabee, American social leader
  • Harriet Wright O'Leary (1916–1999) first woman elected to serve on the Choctaw National Council and one-time governor of the Oklahoma Mayflower Society chapter.
  • Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., American intellectual

Museum

Mayflower Society
Mayflower Society Headquarters (Mayflower House Museum) in Plymouth, Massachusetts in an early 20th-century postcard

In 1941 the Society purchased the Edward Winslow House in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The mansion home was originally built in 1754 by the great-grandson of Edward Winslow, third Governor of Plymouth Colony. The Society operates the home as the Mayflower House Museum, an 18th-century historic house museum with period decorations and furnishings. The offices and library of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants are located behind the mansion.

See also

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