This past week has been an amazing journey for me. On Monday I ran across something on Ancestry that peeked my interest. I did some research on my own family records and discovered that I might be a descendant of the Mayflower passenger, and signer of the Mayflower Compact, Stephen Hopkins. A real, honest to goodness Pilgrim! Seriously, I was blown away. I have just plain old ordinary folks in my lines. Stuff like this just doesn't happen to me. I've never won a prize except at a baby shower or something and never thought I was related to anyone famous. Oh, I did win a statewide writing contest in 8th grade but that was it for me...my one claim to fame.
*****I must pause here and say that I did win the prize when it comes to my husband and children and grandchildren and other relatives I have known...but I never had any vision of that beyond the few.
As I delved into it just a little more I realized it that everything I looked at made it look more probable. I was so excited but cautious in trusting my own discovery. I was afraid to even speak it out loud for fear I was just wishing a little too fervently. I called Bob Trapp and told him what I was suspecting and to tell him we are probably cousins. Bob is a descendant of many of the original pilgrims so I knew he might be of help to me on this search.
Lesson number one: You do not have to be an expert at everything when you are doing family history but it is a tremendous plus to know your resources.
Bob was quite excited about this and told me he'd help me on Tuesday to see what we could find. He introduced me to what he calls "The Silver Bible." This is a series of books that he actually donated to the Oakland Library. Wow, am I ever grateful. Thanks, Trapps! He promptly pulled out the volume I needed entitled, " Mayflower Descendants Through Five Generations." Stephen Hopkins, Volume 6: 3rd Edition. This was published in 2001 by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and considered The Authoritative Source." He told me if I could tie into their findings...it was a done deal.
Lesson number two: Not all important information comes to us in digital form.
Of course it is all online but how can you really trust it without something to actually research. You want to make sure when you connect generations that they actually do match up.
Lesson number three: There is no easy street in this discipline.
Do not be a gatherer of names without documentation because I guarantee you they will not be your family in most cases. You might get lucky with a few but not many. I was astonished to look at the actual records of a tiny village in Italy to see that even when a surname was shared in a small geographic area for generations, it was no guarantee of any relationship at all. You need to research and work with actual records to get accurate results. There is no other way.
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Mayflower
Bob and I made a preliminary assessment on Tuesday night. High Fives~it looked right! I needed to go home and sort it all out using the copied book pages as my guide to made sure what I was seeing on my records and Family Tree was accurate. By Friday night I had confirmed it with absolute certainty. I am indeed his descendant!
Lesson number four: Family Tree prompted me to search for this in the first place.
I love Family Tree! It lead me to Ancestry which lead me to Bob and The Book. Bob's expertise in Mayflower research and the book was something I trusted. That and the large number of researchers who have been in Massachusetts combing the area for all the documentation that exists there to produced this amazing "Bible" of facts. Then taking it one step further, the people that looked at all the sources and came up with the standard used in the Silver "Bible." I so appreciated all the help Bob gave me in deciphering that "Bible" that rivaled the Old Testament for lack of easy reading and comprehension. It is so nice to feel I did my research and the facts are proven, sourced and cited.
Stephen Hopkins is my 11th great-grandfather born in 1581-82 in England. I was crossed-eyed and exhausted but what a discovery! The fun part is seeing how many others have descended from him that we all know like Sir Issac Newton, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jane Austin, Agatha Christie, John Steinbeck. I love that so many of them are writers.
The more important part is that I know the genealogy is correct as hundreds of professional researchers have blazed the trail, as admittance to the Mayflower Society is based on proven genealogy. Now I am not sure that I will ever join the Mayflower Society but my real prize is knowing my family heritage and being able to pass that along to our children and grandchildren. They will get this one line with 15 generations! That is the grand prize, in my humble opinion. And who knows, knowing more about who they are may prompt them to seek to become their best selves just a little more than they already do! A Mayflower scholarship for college might be a great carrot to dangle out there right now too, as some of them are approaching high school.
Lesson number five: Never give up.
I started this line nearly 40 years ago never dreaming I could take it this far. Another reminder to me that the Lord is in the details of our lives. I use to think we were the only members of the church in our family. I couldn't have been more wrong. Gordon B. Hinckley and Lorenzo Snow belong to the Stephen Hopkins family too. Sometimes being wrong feels so right! :-)
