About Us
Honoring the past. Inspiring the future.
My family has deep, deep roots in colonial New England, and as a child I was fascinated by early American history. One Thanksgiving, when I was about seven or eight, I was in the kitchen with my father when he told me, almost offhandedly, that we were descendants of Elder William Brewster. He didn’t elaborate, and it didn’t occur to me to ask any questions. But I never forgot, and as an adult I began to wonder about our Mayflower origins.
A story passed down, half-finished
I learned that the last person in our line to carry the Brewster surname was my paternal great grandmother, Effie Brewster. Her father was orphaned as a toddler and his paternal aunt raised him as her own son. When he eventually determined that she wasn’t really his mother, she told him the names of his parents and grandparents, where they lived and that they were Mayflower Brewsters. But she either didn’t know—or didn’t tell him—any more than that. His daughter Edith spent her long life trying to trace our family’s connection back to the Mayflower. Her daughter did the same, and hit the same brick walls. Somewhere along the line I also caught the genealogy bug and made it my mission to solve the mystery.
A breakthrough thanks to DNA
In my 20-year search I was able to learn a great deal more about our Brewster line. Although the internet gave me access to more information—census records, news articles, deeds, burials and more—that brick wall stubbornly held. But when DNA tests became available, the clues all pointed to a very specific Brewster lineage. And to my surprise, that lineage also connects us to the Hopkins, Howland, White and Doty lines.
Unexpected discoveries
What’s more, I learned that we are also descendants of Richard Warren via a separate paternal line, and from Edward Fuller, John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley through my paternal grandmother. All told, my family has 17 Mayflower ancestors, plus John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims who was never able to make the crossing to New England. So I really understand the challenges and frustrations involved in tracing Mayflower roots, and the thrill of discovering that the family lore has turned out to be true after all.
Why I do this
That’s why I decided to create a line of Mayflower-themed apparel, accessories and home décor that would help my family and others celebrate their Mayflower roots, and pass the stories down to succeeding generations in a truly personal, respectful and authentic way,
And that’s just the beginning. Along the way, my research stopped being just about my own family. I love helping other people work through the same kind of half-finished stories and brick walls that we encountered. I plan to use proceeds from the Mayflower Emporium to create educational content and a portal for Mayflower research. I'm in the process of building them now, and can hardly wait to share them with everyone!