EXPLANATION OF OUR MAYFLOWER PASSENGER COUNTS
These are the criteria used to determine the lists for each of the selections on Meet the Passengers:
Passengers: 104
Includes everyone included William Bradford’s List of Mayflower passengers, and includes children born during the voyage and in Plymouth Harbor.
Women: 30
Includes those identified as wives or female children.
Children: 32
Includes the children born during the voyage and in Plymouth Harbor.
Servants: 14
Anyone identified as a servant of another passenger.
Crew members: 8
It is estimated that the Mayflower would have had a crew of about 30. The includes only those for whom a name is available.
Died the first year: 56
All of those that were recorded to have died on the voyage or within the first year of landing.
Left descendants: 50
Those who left descendants in Plymouth or in Europe.
Returned to Europe: 8
Those who came on the Mayflower and permanently returned to Europe at any point after 1620
All: 108
Everyone included in the lists above.
Key sources:
• Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633
• William Bradford, Of Plimouth Plantation manuscript, List of Mayflower Passengers http://archives.lib.state.ma.us/2452/208249.