Mayflower Ancestor John Howland - 52 Ancestors #48

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is Thankful. November 26 was Thanksgiving in the U.S. and genealogists think about their Mayflower ancestors at this time of year.

Four years ago, I shared the two Mayflower lines that I know of at Mayflower Passenger Ancestors.

Only as an adult did I learn the story about my ancestor John Howland falling overboard and almost being lost at sea on his trip across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower.

He was born sometime in the 1590s likely at Fenstanton, Huntington County, England, to Henry and Margaret Howland. He traveled on the Mayflower as an indentured servant to Governor John Carver, who died soon after the Mayflower's arrival.

William Bradford, who became Plymouth Bay's governor and was a signer of the Mayflower Compact, kept a detailed diary, which is the only primary source account of the Mayflower voyage. It includes the following account of how stormy it was and of John Howland's miraculous rescue:

Mayflower Passenger Ancestors

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I share below my two known Mayflower lines. I've known about my descent from John Howland and Elizabeth and John Tilley (through my father) for quite awhile. A couple of years ago, I found that through my mother, I am descended from James Chilton.

Mayflower passenger names are bolded.

John Tilley (1571 - 1620) and Joan Hurst (about 1568 - 1621)

Elizabeth Tilley (1607 - 1687) and John Howland (1592 - 1673)

Desire Howland and John Gorham

Mercy Gorham and George Denison

Thankful Denison and Thomas Stanton

Robert Stanton and Anna Stanton

Thankful Stanton and Lodowick Stanton

Mary Stanton and Jedidiah Willett

Frances Stanton Willet and Joseph Stanton Rose

Frances Adelaide Rose and David Hunter McAlpin

Frances Adelaide McAlpin and James Tolman Pyle

Charles McAlpin Pyle and Elizabeth Adsit

Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr. and my mother

Me

James Chilton (1563 – 1620) and wife unknown
Mary Chilton (1607 – 1679) married John Winslow (brother of Gov. Edward Winslow)
  (Tradition says that Mary Chilton was the first woman who came ashore from the Mayflower.)

Susanna Winslow and Robert Latham

Mercy Latham and Isaac Harris

Desire Harris and John Kingman

Mary Kingman and Samuel Copeland

Samuel Copeland and Mary Owen

Abraham Copeland and married Elizabeth Tupper

Nathaniel Copeland and Mary Page

Thomas Jefferson Copeland and Julia Elvira Townsend

Henry Clay Copeland and Sarah Lowell

Lowell Copeland and Ethel May Greeley

Lowell Townsend Copeland and Helen Lysle Hunter 

My mother and Charles McAlpin Pyle, Jr.

Me

Happy Thanksgiving to all!