how can we find out if our ancestors were on the mayflower?

Question

back in november my kids and i were studying the story of the infamous crossing. and there was a woman who's last name is Prince. my ex husband told me it's a common dutch name, so he couldnt be definite there was a relation (his mother's maiden name is Prince). how can i find out? is there a free geneology site i can visit?

Answer 1

It takes a long time to prove your line back that far unless you find a more recent ancestor who has done the work and you can prove your relationhip to that person. www.mytree.com has a place you can work for free like a blank chart. To do this, you put in your name, date of birth, place of birth and then do it to your mother. Since Prince is her Dad's name you will want to concentrate on his line and you would only need to do the paternal line each time. Go to www.rootsweb.com and look for the Prince message board and post your interest and who the last person is that you know the information on. Your parents should know who their grandparents are so you would go from there. Then other people working on that surname can post to you and tell you it they are related and if they have the rest of the genealogy back to the Mayflower. However, you would only be looking for a son she had to carry the name on. W/O that son, the line for the surname Prince would changed to the husband's name. I was researching the Ball line and when it changed to the husband's name it was Bridge. I've got that all the way back to the Puritans and have found our ancestor's statue is on the commons at Concord, Massassachutes. It was pretty easy as others had done the work and it was posted online. John Bridge gave the land that Harvard University sits on. Pretty cool, huh? Beware once you start this, it is addictive. I've been doing it for about ten years and there is always another interesting relative to work on. Good Luck

Answer 2

Google "free geneology", I have found several of my ancestors that way. I have compared what my father has against what info was given on the free sites and about 75% of the time things have been correct.