Tag Archives: Mayflower Society

Let’s Talk About: The Mayflower Society

by Donna Phillips

In 1620, a brave group of 102 men, women, and children sailed across the Atlantic on the Mayflower in search of a better life. 
In 1897, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants was established to pay homage to the Pilgrims through preservation and education.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants is committed to research on the lineal descent of the Mayflower Pilgrims and education about the Pilgrims who traveled aboard the Mayflower in 1620. The Society provides education and understanding of why the Mayflower Pilgrims were important, how they shaped western civilization, and what their 1620 voyage means today and its impact on the world.

Think you’re eligible to join this Society? Want to know more? Visit www.themayflowersociety.org. All your questions will be answered and your interest heightened! 

The Society also offers a channel on YouTube……. several short videos will help you know more about this group and their goals. One really good vid is “Things They Left Behind,” presented by the Gov. General, Lisa Pennington. 

Let’s Talk About: Mayflower Society’s Silver Books

by Donna Phillips


“The Silver Books primary purpose is for Mayflower descendant lineage verification. They also provide a map for you, researchers, and writers to study their lives and to better tell their stories.” (from their website, www.themayflowersociety.org)

Whether or not you wish to join the Mayflower Society, if you perhaps have a Mayflower ancestor, you might be wanting to know more about him/her and their descendants…….. so, perhaps, to connect your tree to theirs. The Silver Books are the go-to-starting-place for this research. The “bad news” is that there are only three ways that you can access these books:  (1) a library, like the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City;  (2) purchase;  (3) become a member and access them via the website. 

**The red bar at the bottom (which got cut off) leads to a 10-page PDF file: 

THE REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE GSMD SILVER BOOK SERIES Revised 1 September 2021 1 The Silver Book Project, originally known as the Five Generations Project, traces the descendants of the Mayflower pilgrims. The project aims to provide clear, well documented lineages of the ship’s passengers through the 7th and 8th generations. Each family has a volume* and many consists of multi-part sets. This guide explains how the books are organized. MF[#] refers to the title Mayflower Families and the volume number.

Some Mayflower Ancestor books have more than one part and, I understand, more compilations are in the works………. 

P.S. If you are an Ancestry member, this website offers many AmericanAncestors.org databases that may help you trace your Mayflower ancestry. Do check it out.