MY 10TH GREAT GRANDMOTHER
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Left: Pilgrim woman making minced pie
This is a true story of a strong woman related by DNA, who has never enjoyed the notoriety which surely should belong to her and all the women who were on this fate-filled journey across the Atlantic Ocean during the winter months. I wrote it for this reason and the following as well: https://www.amazon.com/Susanna-Fuller-White-Winslow-Grandmother/dp/1690184515/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8
Also found on Amazon under books and Kathleen Boston McCune
As a history buff and unofficial family analyst of ancestry,
I decided when I found that we are directly related to two families who boarded
the Mayflower and made it as far as Plymouth Rock, to record most everything
anyone might want to learn about this crossing in 1620.
My 10th Great Grandfather, William White[i]
died several days upon landing, but his son, who is also my 9th
Great Grandfather Peregrine White, was born on the 19th of December,
1620 while he and his mother, Susanna Fuller White, my 10th Great
Grandmother, were still aboard the Mayflower.
The weather was typical for that era for the northeastern coastline of
America, and considerably colder and snowier than the weather from which these
Puritans were familiar. For this reason
and the fact that illness was quickly claiming the lives of too many, most of
the women and children were left aboard the vessel until cabins could be built
by the ship’s crew and the men not already too ill to help. The cabins would not be ready for over three
months, at which time those still alive were brought ashore.
Since I found more than one reference to Susanna (Peregrine’s
mother) being born at Redenhall, Norfolk, England (the known Mansion of the
Fuller family), I had to make the logical leap that her maiden name must surely
be Fuller; though several other historians disagree with this assumption.
The question of why only four of the 27 women survived the
first year once landed, while the others did not, persisted in the back of my
mind throughout the writing of this treatise. I decided to further study the
profiles of these women, namely: Susanna Fuller White, Eleanor Billington, Mary
Brewster and Elizabeth Hopkins. They all
came from totally different households, from wealthy to middle class and from
innocently pure to obnoxiously loud and pushy to pursue the raising of their
children in this foreign clime. What they shared was that they all had at least
two children onboard with them less than 16 years old and all but one had
children who were still nursing. Also, two had new-born babes, either born on
the trip over or as soon as the Mayflower landed. My personal deduction was
that the hormone Oxytocin, a hormone present in nursing mothers, relaxes the mother,
thus reducing levels of stress. This may have helped these women deal with what
otherwise may have caused increased levels of adrenaline, which weakens the
body after reason for stress is removed, and would have left adrenaline
available when needed to fend off disease exposure, saving themselves and their
young.
I will be covering the Mayflower Compact, the vessel
Mayflower and as many of the personalities as are written of throughout this
history book. There are millions of
Americans alive today whose forefathers and/or foremothers were on this ship so
important to the founding of our country.
It is my hope that all who read will be spurred on to find
their own background and how it may relate to being a part of this wonderful
land we call America.
Author, Kathleen Boston McCune"
[i] See MF 1:96-97 @ Mayflower
Hall Museum, Plymouth, MA and Ancestry.com
