It's All In A Name

Dear Diary,  

On this day 400 years ago my 8th great grandfather, Edward Doty's ship the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Harbor and the rest, as they say, is history.  He came as an indentured servant to Stephen Hopkins.  I didn't discover my Mayflower connection until several years ago when I was deep into genealogical research but my grandmother always said her family went "way back".  She just couldn't prove it.

This is a letter her mother received after she wrote in 1924 seeking family information.  It is a list of her great grandmother's children.  It said he couldn't discover her maiden name.  So there it set.  But reading the list 90 years later I discovered one child was named "Doty", a rather unusual first name.  To make a long story short, my 4X great grandmother Charity's maiden name was Doty.  Her father fought in the War of Independence and his great-great grandfather was the Pilgrim Edward Doty.  Another 8th great grandfather of mine on another family line, Robert Wixon, arrived in Plymouth colony in 1633, also as an indentured servant.  I come from humble origins.  So, if you hit a brick wall in your family research, checkout the children's names, first or middle, the mother's maiden name may be there and off you will go!

On a side note, Charity had 14 children in 27 years!  I can't imagine that.  Her oldest child had children when she had her last child!  Good grief!