EVERYONE knows the name of the first ship from Europe to reach Massachusetts in 1620. But not everyone knows the name of the second ship, the Fortune, which arrived in November of 1621.
The Fortune is vitally important to my husband's family tree: young Thomas Cushman, a passenger on that second ship, later married my husband's Mayflower ancestor, Mary Allerton.
With Mayflower 2020 in mind, I've been doing a bit more research via the NEHGS and via the Hathitrust Digital Library, where there are more than 115,000 results for the phrase "Mayflower descendants" (as shown at top).
The four Pilgrim ancestors in my husband's family tree are:
- Degory Priest, who planned to send for wife Sarah Allerton Priest later, unfortunately didn't survive the first winter.
- Isaac Allerton, whose first wife (out of three) was
- Mary Norris Allerton...unfortunately, she didn't survive the first winter.
- Mary Allerton, a daughter of Isaac and Mary, who lived into her 80s. Until she died on Nov. 28, 1699, she was known as the final surviving Mayflower passenger.
