Week 11 – Lucky

 

Every person has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents, and with each subsequent generation, the number of your direct ancestors double. By the time you get to your tenth great-grandparents, that’s 4,096 people. Just think about all the little things that had to happen for you to be born. All the chance meetings, the choices, the events, maybe even the weather! 

There is much written about the sailing of the Mayflower and by some estimates, there are 35 million living descendants of those hearty few who sailed to the New World in that Fall of 1620. It was more than 400 years ago, so based on the number of ancestors as noted above, it could be correct. I feel lucky to be counted among those descendants, but let’s put it into perspective just to see how lucky I truly am…

The Mayflower was a sailing vessel that was 106 feet long and 25 feet wide.  The blue rectangle in the middle of the football field (shown below) is roughly the size of the Mayflower. It was a cargo ship, not a passenger liner. After its companion ship, the Speedwell, had to return to port, the Mayflower took on some of those passengers, which caused excessive strain on the already overcrowded ship. Try to imagine the cramped conditions, the cold and wet, the meager food. The ship was made of wood, and it was lucky to have made the journey, especially during the latter part of the 66-day voyage into November. Their initial destination was Northern Virginia, not Plymouth. Although many captains had circumnavigated the globe by this time, I consider myself lucky that with the archaic navigational tools available that they weren’t simply lost at sea or marooned on a yet to be discovered island.

There were 102 passengers and roughly 30 crew members who sailed on the Mayflower. They were unprepared for life in the wilds of New England. The average high temperature for Plymouth in January is around 39⁰ with an average low around 18⁰. With no time to construct buildings before the winter, the Mayflower itself gave them shelter for a time, but the cold weather took its toll. Forty-five of the passengers died that first winter, including three entire families. Only five of the original nineteen women survived. I am lucky that my pilgrim grandmother arrived on a later ship than did her husband.

I descend from three passengers who sailed on the Mayflower – Richard Warren, Francis Cooke, and Francis’ son, John Cooke.

Richard Warren’s wife, Elizabeth, and his five daughters, came in 1623 on the ship Anne. Two sons were born to this couple in Plymouth.  Richard Warren died only eight years after arriving in Plymouth. His widow lived another 46 years. The Warren line is extremely prolific, as Richard and Elizabeth had 56 grandchildren.

Francis Cooke and his thirteen-year-old son, John, originally set sail on the Speedwell. When the Speedwell returned to port and was deemed unseaworthy, Francis and John were among the lucky few who were able to commandeer a place on the Mayflower. Francis was married to Hesther Mahieu in Holland around 1603. Hesther’s father, Jacques Mahieu, was a Huguenot (a story for a later time). Hester Cooke and her three other children arrived in Plymouth on the same ship as Elizabeth Warren and her girls.

John Cooke married Richard Warren’s daughter, Sarah and it is through them I descend.

When rebellion among the passengers was imminent, a set of rules were adopted which became the Mayflower compact. The document stated the colonists would remain loyal to King James; they would enact laws for the good of the colony and agreed to abide by them; they would have only one society; and live according to Christian faith. Both Francis Cooke and Richard Warren were signers of the Mayflower Compact.

Being descended from these Mayflower passengers puts me in the same family tree as some pretty famous folks. Among Richard Warren’s descendants are President Ulysses S. Grant; Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr.; Sarah Palin; Laura Ingalls Wilder; Amelia Earhart; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; and Taylor Swift. Through Francis Cooke, I’m related to President George W. Bush; Dick Van Dyke; Anna Mary “Grandma Moses” Robertson; Orson Welles; Julia Child; Pete Seeger; Marjorie “Betty Crocker” Child; “Wild Bill” Hickok; Johnny Carson; Kris Kristofferson; and Beach Boys Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson. Through both the Cooke’s and the Warren’s, I claim ties to President Franklin D. Roosevelt; and actor Richard Gere.

Throughout our lives, trillions of little things had to happen for us to be who we are. Even without the peril of sea travels, dire sickness, near starvation and bitterly cold winters, we are all lucky things happened exactly how they should have in order for us to be a part of the legacy that is our family history.