Guest blog by Kerry Ames, author of We Three

Many interesting facts and myth-busters are attached to the voyage of the Mayflower. For instance, not all of the passengers were Pilgrims (or "Separatists," as they referred to themselves). What was the new colony to do with a group of this size (30 or more) that didn't adhere to their strict rules and interpretations?

I have a maternal ancestry tie to one passenger: Francis Cooke.

My great-grandmother's surname was Starkweather. That line goes directly back to the Mayflower landing. If certain interpretations are to be believed, my 7X great-grandmother, Ann Woodbury Starkweather, was a "praying" (i.e. "converted") Wampanoag indian, a daughter of Metacomet, also known as King Phillip, namesake of the awful war between the colonists and natives. Such claims about Ann's lineage are dubious, but are often quoted and affirmed in various ancestry forums. My two DNA tests did not reveal any native traces whatsoever. But, if those lineage assertions are accurate, my ancestry would go back to those who were watching the passengers from the Mayflower disembark.

Fun to think about.

A splendid book about the Mayflower is Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War - by Nathaniel Philbrick (who, I note, is a featured historian commentator in Ken Burns' Revolution). Some of the shine often associated with stories of the first Thanksgiving is given over to a more realistic depiction, with the essential follow-up: the quick dissolution of once-favorable associations. Great read.

Ames