Apparently 2 million Americans can trace their lineage to a passenger on the Mayflower who fell overboard and survived by grabbing a rope trailing behind.
Yep! I’m descended from one of his brothers who came over a bit later. That so many Americans are descended from the Howland boys shows how important it can be to get in on the ground floor of a new enterprise.
I've always been amazed by this ability to track your ancestors hundreds of years back. Were the records that good back then?
I had lots of trouble getting birth records for my great-grandparents. The system in my country was terrible, if I didn't have the exact name and date of birth, they couldn't find anything. Nothing was digitized, maybe that changed but I doubt it.
In fact, I did have the wrong day but fortunately the right month and year for my great-grandfather, and it took them a month to find the information. It was expensive, too.
> To think, if he hadn't made it, I wouldn't even be here
Isn’t that the case for literally every one of our ancestors? Any one of them was one accident, disease, etc. away from not having the child that became the next link in the chain between them and me.
“These would have been on a cramped gun-deck (where the passengers would also live) with gun-ports”
Was that really the case? It seems far more likely for the crew to have lived on the gun-decks since presumably they would have been trained to use the cannons, instead of the passengers.
The crew (other than the captain who probably had his own cabin) probably stayed at the lower deck because the gun deck had better ventilation for the passengers. It took a long time after a ship first became visible for a gun battle to occur so the crew had enough time to get ready.
I found out today that the first university (!) in the continent dates back to the 1550s [0]. What made the Spaniards so successful that they were able not only to defeat a full blown civilization (as opposed to the weaker natives in the north) and were able to fully bootstrap their territories where the English took many attempts and failures? Was it the technology? Or just the nature of the northern territories?
This is a gross oversimplification but the purpose and goals of their expeditions were just completely different. Even the earliest Spanish expeditions were (in part) state-approved, armed and essentially get-rich-quick plundering schemes. The existence of advanced (but less well armed) urban civilizations just encouraged them since it meant potential for gold.
A lot of now-famous early British colonizers were basically groups of funky religious malcontents hoping to establish their own little theocracies. Their state approval was more along the lines of 'good riddance'.
>Was it the technology? Or just the nature of the northern territories?
The English were the poors of Europe at the time. They couldn't afford well funded settlement expeditions. Jamestown barely survived. The Pilgrims were basically shown the door and had no better options. Then everyone on the wrong side of the English civil war came over shortly thereafter.
Used to live around the corner. Nice owner, good food and a great beer selection. I now [Ironically?] live in the states and miss that pub quite a lot.
I've been reading a lot about the 1600-1700 period recently and it always amazes me how quickly these people went from "our first goal is to not starve and our second goal live as good Christians" to "let's attack anyone and anything that doesn't share our view of what good a good Christian is"
On one hand humanity doesn't change much so it's not that surprising but 400yr later you can still see the scars the backwards ideologies of various groups of early settlers left on New England.
I just read a recent biography of Dr. Benjamin Rush and it’s clear that even before the American revolution there were some strongly opposing views of how to treat native Americans and whether or not it was morally defensible to enslave Africans. So some who called themselves Christians would accept these practices and many others, like Rush, loudly opposed them (just like the disagreements that happen within groups today).
I'm amazed they were only off by 63 miles, given the article claims dead reckoning was so inaccurate. I'm even more amazed they knew where they were relative to their destination after 66 days of dead reckoning.
Crucially, that's 63 miles North of Virginia. Latitude is relatively straightforward to measure. It's pretty well given that if you sail west from Northern Europe, you'll hit North America. Hitting it at your intended latitude might depend on the winds, but one you bump into it, it should be pretty easy for a competent navigator to tell you how far off your target you were in latitude. Given decent maps, figuring out longitude is probably not a tall order either if you know your latitude and you're on the coast.
kyle_morris_|5 years ago
They include FDR, H.W. And W Bush.[1]
[1] https://accesswdun.com/print/2015/11/352412
unfunco|5 years ago
jonstewart|5 years ago
bserge|5 years ago
I had lots of trouble getting birth records for my great-grandparents. The system in my country was terrible, if I didn't have the exact name and date of birth, they couldn't find anything. Nothing was digitized, maybe that changed but I doubt it.
In fact, I did have the wrong day but fortunately the right month and year for my great-grandfather, and it took them a month to find the information. It was expensive, too.
TedDoesntTalk|5 years ago
irrational|5 years ago
Isn’t that the case for literally every one of our ancestors? Any one of them was one accident, disease, etc. away from not having the child that became the next link in the chain between them and me.
unknown|5 years ago
[deleted]
MichaelZuo|5 years ago
Was that really the case? It seems far more likely for the crew to have lived on the gun-decks since presumably they would have been trained to use the cannons, instead of the passengers.
sdeer|5 years ago
closeparen|5 years ago
mbroncano|5 years ago
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colonial_universities_...
pvg|5 years ago
A lot of now-famous early British colonizers were basically groups of funky religious malcontents hoping to establish their own little theocracies. Their state approval was more along the lines of 'good riddance'.
throwaway0a5e|5 years ago
The English were the poors of Europe at the time. They couldn't afford well funded settlement expeditions. Jamestown barely survived. The Pilgrims were basically shown the door and had no better options. Then everyone on the wrong side of the English civil war came over shortly thereafter.
audiodude|5 years ago
jialutu|5 years ago
One of the best pubs in London if you are in the area. Never disappoints.
mbzi|5 years ago
throwaway0a5e|5 years ago
On one hand humanity doesn't change much so it's not that surprising but 400yr later you can still see the scars the backwards ideologies of various groups of early settlers left on New England.
stephenhuey|5 years ago
jvanderbot|5 years ago
mauvehaus|5 years ago
throwaway0a5e|5 years ago