Our Descent from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins of the Mayflower

In tracing our genealogy, my late grandmother discovered in the early 1970s that her husband, my grandfather Sherman Linn Shaw II, was descended from several Mayflower Pilgrims. The first Mayflower descent that she found was our lineage going back to the Pilgrim John Alden and his wife Priscilla Mullins, daughter of the Mayflower Pilgrims William and Alice Mullins. John and his father-in-law were both Signers of the Mayflower Compact. When my grandmother told my mother of our Alden descent, my mother decided to commemorate it by giving my brother Caleb, her youngest child, the middle name of "Alden."

William Mullins was a shopkeeper of Dorking, County Surrey, England, the son of John Mullins and Joane Bridger. William was one of the many Plymouth colonists who fell sick the first terrible winter, dying 21 Feb. 1621. His widow Alice died later in 1621, probably after 2 April 1621 but certainly before November. William and Alice's son Joseph Mullins died during that same time frame. Between 1621 and 1623, their daughter Priscilla, born in England circa 1602, married John Alden, a cooper (that is, a barrel maker) of Harwich, Essex, England, who joined the Mayflower party as one of its hired hands. It may be significant that the stepfather of Captain Christopher Jones, Master of the Mayflower, was the brother-in-law of Elizabeth Russell, second wife of another John Alden, possibly related to the Pilgrim John Alden. John was born probably between 6 July and 12 Sept. 1598 "or thereabouts" (so perhaps 1599 rather than 1598). John and Priscilla had six daughters and four sons. He died 12 Sept. 1687 at Duxbury, Massachusetts. Priscilla had preceded him in death at some time between 1 Dec. 1680 and 12 Sept. 1687, probably dying at Duxbury.

The following chart shows that my brother Caleb is 11th in descent from John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden of the Mayflower.

                                   John Mullins=Joane Bridger
                                               |
                                        WILLIAM MULLINS=ALICE (NN)
                                         (c.1572-1621) | d. 1621
                                                       |
                                     JOHN ALDEN=PRISCILLA MULLINS
                                  (1598/9-1687)| (c.1602-c.1685)
                                               |
                                         Rebecca Alden=Thomas Delano
                                                      |
                                    Hannah Doty=Jonathan Delano
                                               |
                                          Ruth Delano=John Peterson
                                                     |
                                Edward Sherman=Lucy Peterson
                                              |
                                        Lucy Sherman=Job Shaw
                                                    |
                                            Manley Sherman Shaw=Malinda DeWolf
                                                               |
                                    Mary Rebecca Linn=James Monroe Shaw
                                                     |
                                            Sherman Linn Shaw
                                                     |
                                           Sherman Linn Shaw II
                                                     |
                                Joseph Olar=Dolores Frances Shaw                  
                                           |
                                   Caleb Alden Olar

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