Governor William Bradford

When we were in Searcy this weekend, my mom introduced me to her latest hobby, which is researching our family history on http://www.ancestry.com/. Ancestry allows the (paying) user to search through scanned-in census records, draft cards, and other historical documents from the present all the way back to pre-Revolution days. She has built this massive family tree online that includes her ancestry and dad's ancestry, and she's even starting to trace the ancestry of Marcus and my brother's wife (so she can give the grandkids a family tree poster). I have to admit, after I saw the scanned-in immigration record of one of my great, great, great grandparents and realized that this was legit and not the guesswork I'd assumed, I was hooked.

In all of Mom's research, the coolest thing she has found about my biological heritage is that I am a direct descendant of the wife of Governor William Bradford (the famous governor of the original Plymouth Colony). Governor Bradford arrived on the continent in 1620 on the Mayflower. His first wife, Dorothy, died on the ship, and he was left the single father of a young son. Three years later, after being elected governor of the colony, Bradford married Alice Carpenter Southworth, a widow with two young sons (Constant, age 6 and Thomas, age 5). Alice arrived at Plymouth on the Anne in July of 1923. Alice and Bradford went on to have three more children and raised a blended family of six. My mother and I are direct descendants of Constant Southworth, the oldest stepson of Governor Bradford.

I think Governor Bradford is the coolest thing Mom's found, but Marcus was more excited to see the service papers of one of my ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary war. That means that our sons are eligible to join the group Sons of the Revolution and potentially get $2,000 a year in college scholarships. (I just wish I'd know about this before college and I could have applied for a Daughters of the Revolution scholarship :)

Well, there is your random history lesson for the day...hope you enjoyed it :)