Beech Tree News Network

Amanda Smith daughter of Gene and the late Alice Hawkins of Morgantown was recently confirmed a 12^th Generation Mayflower Descendent and now holds memberships in The General Society of Mayflower Descendants at Plymouth, MA and The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

This society was founded in 1897 to perpetuate the memory of the Pilgrims, to maintain and defend their principles of civil and religious liberty, and to honor their unfailing strength, undying courage, and abiding faith, to which they committed their lives.

Amanda is the first ever to prove Mayflower descent through Ebenezer Cole of Lovemill, VA.  Her official line goes from Mayflower passenger Constance Hopkins, Mary Snow, Mary Paine, Israel Cole Jr, Israel Cole III, Martha Cole, Ebenezer Cole, Sarah Abigail Cole, Woodford Martin, Sarah Abigail Martin, Joenell Fields, then through her mother Alice Shields. 

Constance Hopkins’ father Stephen was also a Mayflower passenger arriving 1620 in New England, however this was not his first trip.  He also spent time at the original Jamestown Colony in 1609.  Of the 102 Mayflower passengers only half survived the first winter. The Hopkins family adapted and survived by sheer determination and will to make better lives in the new world.

After Amanda’s mother informed her “We come from the Mayflower” she and her husband Thomas Smith of Baizetown began their detailed research and assembled proof of Birth, Marriage, and Death of ancestors including spouses in this genealogical line.  Along the way she discovered several Revolutionary War Soldiers were also in this line to include Zacheus Cole who is recognized on the monument outside of the Warren County Courthouse.

Irene Martin Constant’s  published research was a great help in providing supporting evidence that the Coles of Warren and Butler County came from Old Virginia and ultimately went back to the Mayflower.

Because of all the evidence submitted to Plymouth it makes it a simpler process for those who descend from an ancestor in her line to obtain membership. 

* * * 

Story submitted By: The Society of Mayflower Descendants in the Commonwealth of Kentucky