GSMD Insignia

If you have served in multiple positions in the Mayflower Society, either at the state or national level or both, you may have insignia in the form of breast medals and neck medallions that you wear in recognition of your service. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants has issued helpful GSMD Insignia Guidelines on how to wear your insignia. If you have further questions on insignia, please contact Nancy Merwin, Insignia Chair.

Suggested Reading on Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World

CHILDREN'S SELECTIONS

Caffrey, Kate, The Mayflower, New York: Stein and Day, 1974

Glover, Janice, Those Billington Boys: A Pilgrim Story, North Eastham: Byte Size Greaphics, 1994

Goodman, Susan E., Pilgrims of Plymouth, Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2011

Harness, Cheryl, Three Young Pilgrims, New York: Simon & Schuster 1992

Hope, Laura Let,  The Bobsey Twins at Plymouth Rock,  New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1956

McGovern, Ann, ....If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1991

McGovern, Ann, The Pilgrim;s First Thanksgiving,  New York: Scholastic Books, 1973

Ross, Katherine, The Story of the Pilgrims, New York: Random House, 1995

San Souci, Robert, N.C. Wyeth's Pilgrims, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1991

Waters, Kate,  On the Mayflower: Voyage of the Ship's Apprentice and a Passenger Girl, New York: Scholastic Books, 1996

Waters, Kate, Samuel Eaton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy,  New York: Scholastic Books, 1993

Waters, Kate, Sarah Morton;s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girls, New York: Scholastic Books

YOUNG ADULTS' SELECTIONS

Muttart, William P. and Linda R, Ashley, One Hundred & Eleven Questions and Answers Concerning the Pilgims,  Montville, CT:

Mayflower Books, 2009

ADULT SELECTIONS

Bangs, Jeremy Dupertuis,  Strangers and Pilgrims, Travellers and Sojourners: Leiden and the Foundations of Plymouth Plantation:  Plymouth, General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2009

Beale, David, The Mayflower Pilgrims,  Greenville, SC: Ambassador-Emerald International, 2000

Bradford, William,  Governor William Bradford's Letter Book, introduction by John C. Kemp, Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 2001

Bradford, William, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed Samuel Eliot Morison, New York, Alfred J. Knopf, 1952

Bunker, Nick, Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World. New York, Alfred J. Knopf, 2010

Curtin, Kathleen, Sandra Oliver and Plimoth Plantation, Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipeis and History from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie, New York: Clarkson Potter, 2005

Deetz, James and Patricia Scott Deetz, The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love and Death in Plymouth Colony, New York: W.H. Freedman, 2000

Gaskil, Malcolm, Between Two Worlds: How the English Became Americans,  New Yori: Perseus Books, 2014

Heath, Dwight B. ed. Mourt's Relations, a Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth,  Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 1963

Hodgkin, Godfrey,  A great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims 7 the Myths of the First Thanksgiving,  New York: Perseus Books, 2006

Hornblower, Malabar,  The Pilgtim Plantation New England Cookery Book,  Boston: Harvard Common Press, 1990

Horowitz, Tony,  A Voyage Long and Strange,  New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008

Lee, Christopher, 1603: The Death of Queen Elizabeth I, The Returm of the Black Plague, The Rise of Shakespeare, Piracy, Witchcraft, and the Birth of the Stuart Era,  New York: St Martin;s Press. 2003

Main, Gloria L., Peoples of a Spacious Land, Families and Cultures in Colonial New England, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001

Muttart, William P. and Linda R. Ashley,  One Hundred & Eleven Questions & Answers Concerning the Pilgrims,  Montville, CT: Mayflower Books, 2009

Philbrick, Nathaniel, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War,  New York, Viking Penguin, 2006

Sherwood, Mary Bl  Pilgrim: A Biography of William Brewster,  Falls Church, VA; Great Oak Press of Virginia, 19982

Stavely, Keith and Kathleen Fitzgerald, America's Founding and Food: The Story of New England Cooking,  Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Press, 2004

Stratton, Eugene, Plymouth Colony: It's Hisdtory and People,  Salt Lake City: Ancestry Publishing, 1986

Williston, George F.  Saints and Strangers,  New York: Cornwall Press, 1945

Mayflower Related Links - CT Research Centers

• The Connecticut Historical Society at http://www.chs.org

• The Connecticut State Library at http://www.cslib.org/handg.htm

• The New England Historic and Genealogical Society at http://www.newenglandancestors.orgf.

• The Connecticut Society of Genealogists at http://www.ctfamilyhistory.com  Now Offers Footnote.com as part of membership.

• The Godfrey Memorial Library at http://www.godfrey.org  

• Pilgrim Hall Museum.  http://www.pilgrimhall.org  .

• The Plymouth Colony Archive Project at the University of Virginia, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/users/deetz/

• General Society of Mayflower Descendants at http://www.themayflowersociety.org .

• Caleb Johnson's Mayflower Website at http://MayflowerHistory.com.

• Contact information for ALL state societies throughout the United States located at : http://www.themayflowersociety.com

• Connecticut Historical Guides at:  http://www.areavibes.com/library/connecticut-historical-resource-guide

Mayflower Family Society Websites

• The Elder William Brewster Society at http://www.brewsterfamily.org

• The Pilgrim John Howland Society at http://pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org

• The Thomas Rogers Society at http://www.thomasrogerssociety.com

•  The Pilgrim Hopkins Society at http://www,pilgrimhopkins.com/site1

• The Pilgrim Henry Samson Kindred at http://pilgrimhenrysamsonkindred.org

• The Edward Doty Society at http://www.edward-doty.org

• The Alden Kindred at http://www.alden.org

• The Soule Kindred at http://www.soulekindred.org

• The Society of Governor Wm Bradford Descendants at http://www.sgwbd.com

• The Fuller Society at http://www.fullersociety.com

• The Pilgrim Francis Cooke Society at  http://www.pilgrimfranciscookesociety.org 

• The Warren Cousins ( No Web Site) C/O George C. Bingham, Registrar 208 Lewis Rd, Belmont, MA 02478-383

• The Myles Standish Society ( No Web Site)  C/O Becky Lindgren-Dyas, 1129 Huntleigh Dr. Naperville, IL 60540
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Paintings & Stories

........ and met with many fierce storms, with which the ship was shroudly shaken, and her upper works made very leaky; and one of the main beams in the mid ships was bowed and cracked, which put them in some fear that the ship could not be able to perform the voyage. In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce, and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of sail, but were forced to hull, for divers days together.

Pilgrim William Bradford described the event as follows:
'' in a mighty storme, a lustie yonge man (called John Howland)coming upon some occasion above the grattings, was, with a seele of the shipe throwne in the sea; but it pleased God that he caught hould of the top-saile halliards, which hunge over board, and rane out at length; yet he held his hould (though he was sundrie fathomes under water) till he was hald up by the same rope to the brime of the water, and then with a boat hooke and other means got into the shipe againe, and his life saved; and though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church and commone wealthe''

Mayflower Almost Shipwrecked Off Cape Cod
On November 9th ,1620, the Mayflower's crew sighted Cape Cod and attempted to sail south to the mouth of the Hudson's River, near modern-day Long Island, New York.

Although the weather was fine, they were caught in a riptide and nearly shipwrecked on the shallow sand banks to the south of the Cape at Monomoy Point. Pilgrim William Bradford described the event as follows:

''After some deliberation had amongst them selves and with the master of the ship, they tacked aboute and resolved to stande for the southward (the wind and weather being faire) to finde some place aboute Hudson's River for their habitation. But after they had sailed that course aboute halfe the day, they fell amongst deangerous shoulds and roring breakers, and they were so farr intangled ther with as they conceived them selves in great danger; and the wind shrinking upon them withall, they resolved to bear up againe for the Cape, and thought themselves hapy to gett out of those dangers before night overtooke them, as by God's providence they did. ''

The Mayflower anchored off what is now Provincetown Harbor on November 11, and over the next month put out several expeditions to survey Cape Cod and the vicinity. The voyage from Plymouth, England to Plymouth Massachussetts is about 2,750 miles, and took the Mayflower 66 days to cover that distance.

The Mayflower left England with 102 passengers, including three pregnant women, and a crew of unknown number (approximately 25 to 30). While the Mayflower was at sea, Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to a son who she named Oceanus. After the Mayflower had arrived and was anchored in Provincetown Harbor, Susanna White gave birth to a son, who she named Peregrine (which means "one who has made a journey"). Only one passenger and one crewman died during the arduous voyage. Within 6 months of the landing, no fewer than 52 of the Mayflower passengers died in an epidemic, including 14 of the 18 wives and 13 of the 24 husbands. Surprisingly, the survivors resolved to remain.

The Mayflower then sailed to France, bringing home to London a cargo of salt. Shortly after, her master and quarter-owner, Christopher Jones, fell sick. He died in March 1623. My painting shows the Mayflower in 1624, sitting in ruins in the river Thames. The sunset is symbolic of the end of the life of the vessel. The Port of London is in the background, soon to exploit the riches of the New World, unaware of the historic importance of the decaying hulk in its midst. The Mayflower was valued at £128, including 5 anchors, the suit of worn sails, an old pitch pot and kettle (a large cauldron). The ship was probably sold off as scrap lumber.

In 1920, J. Rendal Harris claimed to have discovered Mayflower timbers in amedieval barn at Jordans, situated 25 miles northwest of London. Despite the total lack of evidence and no supporting documentation, this theory has been accepted by the mass media, and has found itself in "National Geographic," and as a question on Jeopardy. Nonetheless it is almost certainly not the Mayflower. I have painted some foxes on the side of the cart on which the timber is being loaded, alluding to this hoax!