If you are related to Don via his mother Arlene Elizabeth Schoenthal, you are a descendant of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren. FamilySearch, the genealogy site hosted by the Church of Latter Day Saints has a fun opportunity that shows if their tree thinks you are related to someone famous. In the category of “Trailblazers,” Don found the connection.
I use FamilySearch as a library for sources and hints. I don’t rely on the FamilySearch tree since it often has suspect connections, for example, a child listed with the wrong parents, that can lead you astray. The FamilySearch hint was based on Don’s 4th Grandmother, Cynthia Gilmore 1790-1877, married to Bildad Gleason. I got a little obsessed checking the connections to be sure I could reasonably tie Cynthia back to her parents, and on to the next generations back to Richard.
Richard Warren is Don’s 11th great-grandfather. See the illustration for how the relationship comes down through the generations; down to Gleasons, then Arlene Elizabeth Schoenthal, then all of you!
Being a Mayflower descendant is not highly unique. Since there have been so many generations since the landing of the Mayflower in November of 1620, it is estimated that there are 35 million descendants of the original passengers alive today. But it is still super cool.
Richard Warren was not a Pilgrim, he was a merchant. He left on the Mayflower to further his fortune. The ship wasn’t even planning on landing in Massachusetts. The Mayflower was originally sailing to Virginia but after the terrible crossing and their inability to continue down the coast due to the strong winter seas. The group drew up their own rules for governance, called the Mayflower Compact. Richard was the 12th signer of the 41 male passengers that signed the Compact.
Richard journeyed without his wife, Elizabeth Walker Warren, and their five daughters, leaving them in England to join him later. It was a good call. Between the cramped quarters on a small ship that wasn’t entirely watertight during the two month crossing and the terrible winter once they finally landed, only 53 of the 102 passengers survived to the following March when they established the colony.
There is not a lot of detail about Richard Warren. We know that he sent for his family and they arrived on the Anne in 1623. He and his wife had two more sons but, tragically, Richard died in 1628, around age 50. Elizabeth was much more fortunate, living to be around 90 years old. Richard and Elizabeth had a large number of children that survived to adulthood which means many descendants can claim Richard as their Mayflower ancestor.
First posted in Facebook – Related to Renee, 18 Jul 2021.