Richard Warren
Compact signer
A London merchant who sailed alone, leaving his wife Elizabeth and five daughters in England; they joined him at Plymouth aboard the Anne in 1623.
Check if Richard Warren is your ancestorMayflower passengers: the full list, and how to tell if you descend from one
About 102 passengers sailed from Plymouth, England in September 1620. Roughly half were dead within a year. Only a minority left lines that survive — and every genuine Mayflower connection alive today runs through one of the 38 people below.
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The short version
- Passengers aboard
- About 102, plus roughly 30 crew.
- Died the first winter
- Roughly half the company, between 1620 and 1621.
- Lines traceable today
- 38 passengers, listed below.
- Living descendants
- Commonly estimated in the tens of millions.
- Signed the Mayflower Compact
- 41 of the men, in November 1620.
- Generations back
- Typically 10 to 13 for someone living now.
Passengers who lived to found families
These 25 survived the first winter, or arrived as children who did. Nearly every documented Mayflower line alive today passes through this group.
John Howland
1591 – 1671Compact signer
Washed overboard in a storm mid-crossing and hauled back aboard by a topsail halyard — one of the most retold moments of the voyage. He married fellow passenger Elizabeth Tilley.
Check if John Howland is your ancestorJohn Alden
1599 – 1687Compact signer
The ship's cooper, hired at Southampton and free to return home; he chose to stay. He married Priscilla Mullins, and the two became the subject of Longfellow's poem two centuries later.
Check if John Alden is your ancestorPriscilla Mullins
Daughter of William and Alice Mullins. She lost her father, mother, and brother in the first winter, and married John Alden at Plymouth.
Check if Priscilla Mullins is your ancestorGeorge Soule
1590 – 1679Compact signer
Sailed as a servant in Edward Winslow's household and signed the Compact in his own right. He lived more than half a century in the colony.
Check if George Soule is your ancestorFrancis Cooke
Compact signer
Came with his son John while his wife Hester and their other children remained in Leiden; the family was reunited at Plymouth three years later.
Check if Francis Cooke is your ancestorEdward Doty
Compact signer
A servant of Stephen Hopkins. In 1621 he and Edward Leister fought the colony's first duel — both were injured, and both were sentenced for it.
Check if Edward Doty is your ancestorStephen Hopkins
Compact signer
The only passenger who had crossed before: shipwrecked at Bermuda in 1609 on his way to Jamestown. That experience made him one of the colony's most useful men in dealings with the Wampanoag.
Check if Stephen Hopkins is your ancestorWilliam Brewster
Compact signer
The senior elder of the Leiden congregation and the colony's spiritual leader, having led the separatist community through England and the Netherlands before the crossing.
Check if William Brewster is your ancestorWilliam Bradford
1590 – 1657Compact signer
Governor of Plymouth Colony for roughly thirty years and author of Of Plymouth Plantation, the chief firsthand account of the voyage and settlement.
Check if William Bradford is your ancestorElizabeth Tilley
1607 – 1687
Sailed as a girl with her parents John and Joan, both of whom died the first winter. She married John Howland and outlived him by sixteen years.
Check if Elizabeth Tilley is your ancestorEdward Winslow
Compact signer
The colony's diplomat, who negotiated with Massasoit and later served as governor. He wrote much of the earliest published description of Plymouth.
Check if Edward Winslow is your ancestorMyles Standish
Compact signer
A professional soldier hired to lead the colony's defense. He was not a member of the Leiden congregation, but stayed with the settlement for life.
Check if Myles Standish is your ancestorIsaac Allerton
Compact signer
An early assistant to Governor Bradford and the colony's agent in England, later a merchant trading along the coast.
Check if Isaac Allerton is your ancestorSamuel Fuller
1580 – 1633Compact signer
The colony's physician and a deacon of the church, who cared for the sick through the first winter and was later sent to help other settlements.
Check if Samuel Fuller is your ancestorHenry Samson
Crossed as a child in the care of relatives and lived in the colony more than sixty years.
Check if Henry Samson is your ancestorRichard More
One of four More children put aboard as indentured servants amid a family dispute. He was the only one of the four to survive, and later became a sea captain.
Check if Richard More is your ancestorFrancis Eaton
Compact signer
A carpenter from Bristol who sailed with his wife Sarah and infant son Samuel.
Check if Francis Eaton is your ancestorJohn Billington
Compact signer
A Compact signer remembered for repeated trouble with the colony's leadership; in 1630 he was tried and executed for murder, the first such case at Plymouth.
Check if John Billington is your ancestorElinor Billington
Wife of John Billington, who remained in the colony after his execution and remarried.
Check if Elinor Billington is your ancestorJames Chilton
Compact signer
At around sixty-four, the oldest passenger aboard. He died in Provincetown Harbor before the company had settled at Plymouth.
Check if James Chilton is your ancestorSusanna Jackson White
Widow of William White and mother of Peregrine. Her marriage to Edward Winslow in 1621 was the first wedding held in the colony.
Check if Susanna Jackson White is your ancestorMary Brewster
Wife of Elder William Brewster and one of only a handful of adult women to survive the first winter.
Check if Mary Brewster is your ancestorElizabeth Fisher Hopkins
Second wife of Stephen Hopkins. She gave birth to a son, Oceanus, during the crossing itself.
Check if Elizabeth Fisher Hopkins is your ancestorPeter Browne
Compact signer
A Compact signer who survived a night lost in the woods early in the settlement's first winter and lived at Plymouth until 1633.
Check if Peter Browne is your ancestorPassengers who died in the first winter
These 13 did not survive to 1622, but their children did — which is why their names still appear in living family trees four centuries on.
Edward Fuller
1575 – 1621Compact signerDied the first winter
Sailed with his wife and young son Samuel. Both parents died in the first winter, and the boy was raised by his uncle, the colony's physician.
Check if Edward Fuller is your ancestorThomas Rogers
Compact signerDied the first winter
Died in the first winter, leaving his son Joseph, who had sailed with him; the rest of the family followed from Leiden afterward.
Check if Thomas Rogers is your ancestorMrs. James Chilton
Died the first winter
Wife of James Chilton; she died in the first winter. Her given name was never recorded.
Check if James Chilton is your ancestorJohn Tilley
1571 – 1620Compact signerDied the first winter
Sailed with his wife Joan and daughter Elizabeth. He died within weeks of arrival.
Check if John Tilley is your ancestorJoan Hurst Tilley
Died the first winter
Wife of John Tilley and mother of Elizabeth; she died in the first winter, leaving her daughter orphaned in the colony.
Check if Joan Hurst Tilley is your ancestorWilliam Mullins
Compact signerDied the first winter
A shoemaker and merchant from Dorking in Surrey, who brought a large stock of shoes and boots. He died in the first winter.
Check if William Mullins is your ancestorAlice Mullins
Died the first winter
Wife of William Mullins and mother of Priscilla; she died in the first winter.
Check if Alice Mullins is your ancestorWilliam White
Compact signerDied the first winter
Died in the first winter. His son Peregrine, born aboard the Mayflower in Cape Cod Harbor, was the first English child born in New England.
Check if William White is your ancestorMrs. Edward Fuller
Died the first winter
Wife of Edward Fuller and mother of Samuel; she died in the first winter. Her given name is not recorded in any surviving source.
Check if Edward Fuller is your ancestorMary Norris Allerton
Died the first winter
Wife of Isaac Allerton; she died in the first winter after giving birth to a stillborn son aboard ship.
Check if Mary Norris Allerton is your ancestorSarah Eaton
Died the first winter
Wife of Francis Eaton, who sailed with their infant son Samuel and died in the first winter.
Check if Sarah Eaton is your ancestorMoses Fletcher
Compact signerDied the first winter
A blacksmith from the Leiden congregation and a Compact signer; he died in the first winter.
Check if Moses Fletcher is your ancestorDegory Priest
Compact signerDied the first winter
A hatter from London who sailed ahead of his wife and daughters; he died in the first winter, and his family reached Plymouth in 1623.
Check if Degory Priest is your ancestorHow to tell if you actually descend from one
Most families who believe they have a Mayflower ancestor have never checked the middle generations, which is where these claims usually come apart. The method is the same whether you do it by hand or let a tree do it for you.
1
Work backward, not forward
Start with yourself and move up one generation at a time. Nobody traces a line down from 1620 — you follow your own parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents until a name lands in colonial New England.
2
Look for the New England bottleneck
Mayflower lines run through Plymouth, Barnstable, and Bristol counties in Massachusetts. If your tree reaches 1700s New England, a passenger line is genuinely plausible. If it doesn't, it almost certainly isn't.
3
Check every generation, not just the famous one
A claimed connection is only as good as its weakest link. The Mayflower Society's Silver Books document the first five or six generations from each passenger precisely because that is where most family legends break.
4
Let your tree do the search
If your family already keeps a FamilySearch tree, the work is largely done. Rememberkin reads it and traces every line back for you, then shows which passengers — if any — are actually your direct ancestors. No tree yet? A free FamilySearch account takes about two minutes to set up.
If the line checks out
A proven line deserves better than a screenshot
When Rememberkin confirms a passenger in your tree, it can print the whole line — every generation between you and the ship, with names, dates, and portraits — as a chart for the wall or a page in your family book.
- Every generation between you and the passenger, documented
- The relationship named plainly — 11th-great-grandfather, not a guess
- Printed as a wall chart or bound into your family book
Mayflower questions, answered
How many people were on the Mayflower?
About 102 passengers sailed, along with roughly 30 crew. The ship left Plymouth, England in September 1620 and reached Cape Cod in November. Roughly half the passengers died during the first winter at the new settlement.
How many Mayflower passengers have descendants today?
Only a minority. Many passengers died before having children in the colony, and other lines died out within a few generations. The list on this page covers the 38 passengers whose descendant lines can be traced in FamilySearch today — the names any real Mayflower connection has to run through.
How do I know if I'm a Mayflower descendant?
Trace your own line backward, generation by generation, and see whether it reaches a Mayflower passenger. A family story is not evidence — every generation in between has to be documented. If your family keeps a FamilySearch tree, Rememberkin can search all of your lines at once and show you which passengers, if any, are your confirmed direct ancestors.
Which Mayflower passenger has the most descendants?
John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley are commonly cited as having one of the largest documented descendant populations, along with John Alden and Priscilla Mullins and Francis Cooke. Exact counts don't exist — descendant numbers are estimates that grow with every documented generation.
Who was the first English child born in New England?
Peregrine White, son of William and Susanna White, born aboard the Mayflower in Cape Cod Harbor in November 1620. A boy named Oceanus Hopkins had been born earlier, during the crossing itself, but did not survive childhood.
What was the Mayflower Compact?
An agreement signed by 41 of the men aboard in November 1620, before anyone went ashore, binding the company to govern itself by majority consent. Passengers on this page who signed it are marked as Compact signers.
Is being a Mayflower descendant rare?
Less rare than most people expect. Four centuries of doubling generations means the descendant population is now commonly estimated in the tens of millions. What is rare is a fully documented line — which is exactly what separates a family story from a proven one.
Stop wondering whether the family story is true
Connect your FamilySearch tree and we’ll check all 38 passengers against every line you have.