Some people eat, sleep and chew gum, I do genealogy and write...

Friday, July 10, 2020

Beginning the Mayflower Quest Part Nine: The persistence of birth


Mayflower II in the Plymouth, Massachusetts Harbor (my photo)

Richard Warren KXML-7XC, a Mayflower passenger is another of my Revolving Door Ancestors. Here are some quotes about his birth. 
Richard Warren's English origins and ancestry have been the subject of much speculation, and countless different ancestries have been published for him, without a shred of evidence to support them. http://mayflowerhistory.com/warren 
The Richard Warren Silver Book, Mayflower families through five generations. descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620 Volume eighteen, part III, Volume eighteen, part III reads that Mourt's Relation states he was from London and that “This statement that he was from London is all we know about the origin of Richard Warren despite considerable research to learn more.” See Mayflower families through five generations. descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620 Volume eighteen, part III, Volume eighteen, part III. 2001.
Genealogists abhor a blank field. A blank field on a family group record or a pedigree chart cankers the soul of the true genealogist. There is an overwhelming urge to fill the field even if the information is totally fabricated and has no valid historical source. If we don't know the exact place of an event, we will fill the blank with a state, province, or country. If we don't know the date we will guess and put "about." We are so conditioned to ambiguity and inconsistency that we will accept almost anything that even comes close to our guess or wish. 

Hmm. I just realized I have discovered a new Rule of Genealogy. See "An Update on the Rules of Genealogy" My statement above is now Rule Thirteen: Genealogists abhor a blank field.

Back to the Mayflower folks. Despite the fact that there have been over 100 years of "considerable research" no one has been able to find and confirm a birth record for Richard Warren and two more FamilySearch Family Tree users today (the date of this post) added two different birth dates and even one source for a christening record for a person named Richard Warren. Another Hmm. A quick look at Findmypast.com shows that during the time period from 1560 to 1580 there were 779 men born with the name "Richard Warren" or a variation thereof. Only three of the results show a birth record and coincidentally, two have death dates in England. You can only hope. But there are no records connecting the one Richard Warren who might have lived with the one who was a passenger on the Mayflower.

If you think you are a descendant of one or more of the Mayflower passengers, you need to overcome your need to fill in the blank spaces and spend some time doing intensive research. Start by reading all the resources about the passenger online. Obtain a subscription to the New England Historic Genealogy Society and read everything you can find about the Mayflower and its passengers. Then start working back verifying every event in every person's life that you believe is a descendant of one of those passengers. If you do find that you are related, join me in helping to keep the entries about the passengers realistic and verified. 

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