Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-12-21

Wherever there lives a descendant OF
that brave little party of Pilgrims who
braved the perils of an ocean voyage In
a tiny craft andN faced the dangers of
prfmeval country in order that they
might worship God in their own way
next Wednesday, December q VIII De
celebrated the 2S9th anniversary of the
arrival at Plymouth Rock. Perhaps no
little boatload of people in the history
of the world has accomplished more OF
contributed more to civilization than those
Pilgrims. Certainly the records of no
such small band of people have been bet
ter or more carefully kept, and the fact
that millions, perhaps, claim to trace thelr
ancestry to the passengers or the May
flower bears eloquent witness to the hon
or the world bestows upon the little band
of devout religionists.
Someone has had the patience to keep
running account of the furniture and
other equipment which, it is claimed
came over in the Mayfiower, and he cal
culates that it would I'LL the holds of the
Mauretania and the Lusitania, with a
good-sized cargo left over. And yet the
Mayf1ower was a boat of only $50 tons
burden. So widespread were the claims OF
parentage through the Mayfower passen-
gers that the General Society of May
flower descendants was organized In 1884,
for the principal purpose of separating
the true from the false among those who
claimed that they had descended from
some passenger of the Mayflower. That
many false claims are made is well
known, but there are thousands who can
trace their ancestry through an unbroken
line of eight or ten generations back 10
the Mayhower Pilgrims.
The society has done much toward
checking the innumerable claims to May
flower descent. The person who desires
to become a member of that organization
If he has any ground for his claim is
given every opportunity to prove his line
age, and if he succeeds all is we'll; If he
does not. there is probably no color at all
to his pretensions as the records pos
sessed by the society enables this mat
ter to be determined with a high degree
of accuracy.
One of the most interesting things
shown by the records of the society of
Mayfiower descendants is how genera
lions of different families may fail tc
keep step with one another. In these
records one may see as contemporaries
of the same age, one person seventh from
Elder Brewster, and another person
tenth from the same Elder Brewster. Ii
is probable that the majority of the pres
ent May1ower descendants, so fas as
membership in the society is concerned
are of the eighth generation from the
original Pilgrims, and that their children
represent the ninth generation. Counting
the average as the ninth it will be found
that the average generation since the
Mayfiower is slightly over % years
The CseneraJ Society of Mayhower de-
soendants is modelled after the plan Of
the United States government. State
societies may be organized wherever
there are enough members to justify 1t
They have the privilege of enacting any
rules or laws which do not conflict will
those of the general society. They are
represented in the activities of the gen.
eral organization in proportion to their
membership, and in general bear the same
relation to the general society that the
states bear toward the federal govern
ment
One of the prominent Mayfiower de-
scendants says that the Pilgrims were
fortunate in their historians; that they
not only made history, but wrote 1T them
selves in order that it might pass down
to posterity in proper form. To this he
attributes the advantage they have in
history over the Dutch. The settlers Of
New York did things just as we'll as
those at Plymouth Rock, but they were
men of silence, little concerned about the
perpetuation of their deeds in historical
annals.
1t is recorded that the first use of the
written ballot in America was in 1922
when the Puritans of Salem organized