Marilyn Monroe was one. So is George W. Bush. And actor/director Clint Eastwood and astronaut Alan B. Shepard.
When the Mayflower landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in November 1620, the ship was behind schedule. The Pilgrims had started out on two ships, but when the Speedwell developed problems, they were forced to return to England. They eventually regrouped, and everyone crowded onto just the Mayflower.
When the Mayflower finally set out again, much later than planned, the two-month, 3,000-mile crossing was stormy and difficult. It was winter when they arrived in the New World, and they struggled to survive that harrowing, severe season. Half of passengers were dead by spring.
The ones who did survive almost certainly never dreamed their descendants would be presidents, inventors, and movie stars. Movie stars? You can imagine the confused, furrowed brows.
Here are a few of the Pilgrims’ well-known descendants. Their ancestor’s name is in bold (you’ll notice that some descend from more than one Mayflower ancestor):
U.S. Presidents
John Quincy Adams, John Adams (John Alden)
Zachary Taylor (William Brewster)
Ulysses S. Grant (Richard Warren)
George W. Bush, and George H. W. Bush (Francis Cooke,John Howland)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Francis Cooke, John Howland, Richard Warren)
Actors and Actresses
Marilyn Monroe, Orson Welles, Dick Van Dyke (John Alden)
Clint Eastwood, Christopher Reeve (William Bradford)
Bing Crosby (William Brewster)
Alec Baldwin, Humphrey Bogart, and Christopher Lloyd (John Howland)
Richard Gere (Francis Cooke, Richard Warren)
Dick Van Dyke (John Alden, Francis Cooke)
Authors
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (John Alden)
Thomas Pynchon (William Bradford)
Astronaut
Alan B. Shepard Jr. (Richard Warren)
Inventor
George Eastman (William Bradford)
Politicians
Dan Quayle (John Alden)
Sarah Palin (William Brewster, John Howland)
Physician
Benjamin Spock (John Howland)
Chef
Julian Child (William Brewster)
Lexicographer
Noah Webster (William Bradford)
Journalist
Cokie Roberts (William Brewster)
Do you descend from one of these brave and adventurous souls? It’s estimated that about ten percent of Americans descend from Mayflower passengers. You can search Mayflower descendants and their marriages for two generations after the landing, as well as other Mayflower records on Ancestry.
— Leslie Lang