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Submitting Your Mayflower Documents

November 12, 2014/ by brewster/ in Mayflower Society/ Comments Off on Submitting Your Mayflower Documents

Recently (as of 2015), the Mayflower Society invoked a new policy stating that all applications must have FULL documentation (birth, marriage, death records) of the applicant and the two generations (parents, grandparents) above the applicant.  This mandate simply implies that documentation in the modern age for parents and grandparents are obtainable, and with the increase in divorces over the last 60 years, this information is incredibly important in order to maintain good lineage records.

I had some confusion when I read the new form.  The statement on the application form is as follows:

Please Note: The General Society of Mayflower Descendants now requires full documentation on the last three generations listed on application or the review (yourself, your parents, and your grandparents) including the spouses as well as the line carriers. Specifically, this means that the General Society requires all marriages and divorces for both line carriers and spouses on those three generations, as well as any death records (if applicable).

My confusion came from the lack of specifically stating that birth and death documentation is also required for parents and grandparents of the spouses of the line-carrier (line-carrier means the bloodline leading directly to the Mayflower ancestor).  It’s required for everyone else.  So I gave them a call to clarify and here’s the answer:

1.  For the applicant you need:

Birth, marriage and any divorces

2.  For the applicant’s mother AND father you need:

Birth records for each, marriage and any divorces, and death (for those deceased).

3.  For applicant’s grandmother and grandfather you need:

Birth records for each, marriage and any divorce documents, and death documents (for those deceased).

4.  So to clear this up, you DO NOT need parents and grandparents information on the NON-LINE-CARRIER (husband or wife that does not have a direct bloodline Mayflower ancestor that you are submitting YOUR connection to).

So, in total, without any divorces, you, as the applicant, will be submitting about  12 documents (in triplicate) just for yourself and two generations back.  Of course the rest of the documentation further back needs to be collected in a type that is acceptable to PROVE your lineage.

DO NOT FORGET THAT ALL DOCUMENTS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN TRIPLICATE (that means three of each)

DON’T STAPLE YOUR DOCUMENTS – USE PAPERCLIPS TO KEEP THE TRIPLICATES TOGETHER

ORDER THE DOCUMENTS LIKE THIS: BIRTH, MARRIAGE, DEATH FOR EACH PERSON AND YOU DON’T NEED TO SUBMIT SIX MARRIAGE DOCUMENTS ON THE TWO MARRIED PERSONS.