When You Discover You're Related to a Mayflower Traveler

Yes, and it happened.  One night while dabbling in genealogy, my usual pass time these days...I followed my mother's father's paternal line along the surname of Doty.  It was not interesting in the least bit, in fact, I was half paying attention to each new little "hint" leaf that would appear as I went from Doty father, to Doty father, until suddenly .....

....Edward "Mayflower Compact" Doty....appeared.  What?  I read further and did a few double-takes.  I don't think so.  No, really, it's not likely.  I mean, really?  A Mayflower passenger?  A resident of Plymouth colony?  Whoa.  No way.

...well, like my daughter would say:  way!  It was true.  As I researched more closely, I discovered, without a doubt, my mother's 8th great grandfather indeed traveled to Plymouth (rock) Massachusetts on the Mayflower voyage, at the age of 21.  He was an indentured servant to another party on board.  And the rest is history, literally.  He survived, married, had nine or more children, may have been married three times, some details aren't as clear.  But his arrival in Nov of 1620 on the Mayflower is absolutely clear and well-documented.  Edward Doty signed the Mayflower Compact; his signature appears on the last column, second to the bottom.

What's particularly interesting to me, is that now I can trace and see sons of the American Revolution.  Doty's (Doughty/Doughtie) were definitely a part of the revolution.  I'm seeing documents popping up everywhere within my genealogy resources.

Edward Doty's memorial appears here at Find a Grave, if you 'd like to read more about him, and others that traveled on the Mayflower to Plymouth.

Find A Grave Edward Cameron Doty