Elizabeth Tilley, born in England in 1607, came to the New World on the Mayflower in 1620 with her parents, John and Elizabeth Tilley. She was orphaned that first winter at Plymouth, Massachusetts, when her parents died. Gov. and Mrs. John Carver took her in.
She married John Howland, who’d been washed overboard when the Mayflower encountered a storm, but was caught in the halyards and rescued. He was the bond servant of Gov. Carver, signed the Mayflower Compact, earned his freedom, and was a well-respected citizen.
Their daughter Desire married John Gorham, who was killed in King Phillip’s war, even though he wasn’t a soldier.
Nantucket
Son Shubael Gorham married Puella Hussey in 1695 on the island of Nantucket. Their daughter Lydia married Joseph Worth of Nantucket.
North Carolina
Joseph and Lydia Worth’s son Daniel married Eunice Hussey. (Son David Worth was the ancestor of C. E. Charles, who wrote me all about my Marshall ancestors, and eventually took me to see where they’d lived.)
Indiana
After their daughter Rhoda married Sylvanus Swain, they moved to Wayne County, Indiana. Daughter Cynthia married Thomas Marshall. Thomas Marshall didn’t move to Dallas County, Iowa, with the exodus from Wayne County, although his father, Miles Marshall, brothers, and a son and daughter did.
Thomas Marshall. His house still stands near Economy, Wayne County, Indiana.
Iowa
Thomas’s daughter Rhoda married John Neal, who’d fought for the Confederacy, deserted, then joined the Union. They moved to Dexter, Iowa, after the Civil War.
John and Rhoda Neal had six children, five daughter, then a son, Orlando Swain Neal.
O. S. Neal married Nellie Keith. They were my father’s grandparents, but my stories about them came from my mother, whose family lived in Dexter near by during the scarcity years of the Great Depression.
O. S. and Nellie Neal had three sons and one daughter. My grandfather Kenneth was the middle son, but anyone who descends from any of these folks, had ancestors who came over on the Mayflower.
Kenneth Neal married Ruby Blohm at Dexter, and my father, Warren Neal, was their oldest child.
This is just a sketch of my connection to the Mayflower.
Sources: Nantucket Vital Records, Mayflower Society, Civil War records