Notable Mayflower Descendants

Do you have any ancestors who were on the Mayflower? In 1620, 102 passengers arrived to the New World aboard the Mayflower and established the Plymouth Colony. Today, millions of people can trace their ancestry back to these early settlers.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Here’s a look at a few notable Mayflower descendants in Geni’s World Family Tree:

George Eastman

George Eastman was the founder of the Eastman Kodak Company. He helped bring photography to mainstream audiences with the introduction of the roll film camera. Eastman is also a descendant of William Bradford, a signer of the Mayflower Compact and governor of the Plymouth Colony intermittently for about 30 years. Bradford is Eastman’s 6th great grandfather!

Sally Field

Actress Sally Field is best known for her Oscar-winning role in Norma Rae and popular films such as Forest Gump and Mrs. Doubtfire. Field is descended from William Bradford through her paternal grandfather. Bradford is Field’s 10th great grandfather.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was from a prominent New England family. He was also a direct descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilly. In fact, Emerson carried Tilly’s mitochondrial DNA since he is descended from an entirely female line. Howland and Tilly were Emerson’s 5th great grandparents.

Humphrey Bogart

The Howlands had many other notable descendants, including actor Humphrey Bogart. John Howland is Bogart’s 7th great grandfather.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

President Franklin D. Roosevelt also descends directly from John Howland and Elizabeth Tilly. Howland is Roosevelt’s 6th great grandfather. Other U.S. presidents who can count themselves as descendants are George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Amelia Earhart

Pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart is a descendant of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren, who is her 8th great grandfather. Warren and his wife, Elizabeth Walker, had seven children and since all seven children survived into adulthood and each had families of their own, the Warrens have a great number of descendants today.

Laure Ingalls WIlder

Another notable Warren descendant is author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Warren is the 7th great grandfather of the Little House on the Prairie author.

Are you a Mayflower descendant? Explore the family trees of all the passengers of the Mayflower in the Great Migration: Passengers of the Mayflower, 1620 genealogy project on Geni!