My grandmother was proud of her New England heritage. While she didn’t know much beyond the names of her maternal grandparents, Albert Stanwood and Lavina Bursley, she had been told growing up that our ancestors came on the Mayflower.

Many years later, after connecting with a Bursley cousin and documenting my descent from John Howland and his wife, Elizabeth Tilly, I was finally able to join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Little did I know that someday another connection to John and Elizabeth would emerge – this time through Lavina Bursley’s husband, Albert Stanwood. The two were 7th cousins!