Family Roots

Another year, another birthday. And what an eventful year it's been! This time last year I was still working at the YTLA in Hawaii (and I'm pretty sure I got to observe on my birthday night) and working through the application process at Swinburne.

Back around the end of April I heard from my mother about some genealogical research my aunt had been doing which I found quite fascinating, so as I ponder another year lived I thought I'd share some of these family roots for posterity.

According to the Mayflower Society, it turns out that on my mom's side I'm descended from several of the passengers who came over to North America on the Mayflower in 1620, specifically John Alden and Priscilla Mullins (who were married a year after arriving, in 1621). While reading about them I discovered that the famous American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was also descended from them, making us distantly related. And then I discovered that he wrote a famous epic poem in dactylic hexameter about them called The Courtship of Miles Standish! (You can read it here.) It's about a love triangle between John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, and the eponymous Miles Standish, and how (spoilers) John and Priscilla eventually end up married. It's unknown if it's historically accurate or not; Longfellow always maintained that it was a retelling of oral history passed down through the family, though at the very least he likely made use of some poetic license by compressing several years of events down. It's a good poem, if really, really weird knowing it's about my ancestors. (I already know how it ends, or else I wouldn't be here! Talk about spoilers!)

According to my aunt's research we're also descended from William Brewster and his wife Mary, more Mayflower Pilgrims, though she forgot to get it checked by the Mayflower Society at the same time. (Edit 5/26/18: She got back to me that they were able to confirm this as well, with the additional information that I'm fifteen generations removed.) While researching them and William's rather exciting life I discovered there's a style of furniture called a Brewster Chair, named after a particular chair created for and owned by him. Even more incredibly, the actual chair owned by my ancestor is still around in the Pilgrim Hall Museum, and you can see a picture of it below!

Original Brewster chair (left, public domain photo).

As I reflect on all this information this year there are a lot of emotions to process. As I reside here in Australia, it's encouraging to think that my family's been crossing oceans to make new lives for themselves on the strength of their religious convictions for centuries. And knowing that my ancestors were present for the first Thanksgiving in 1621 has given the holiday new meaning for me; I think come 2021 I'll make a point to celebrate it with the tagline “A family tradition for 400 years!” A hui hou!