Apply for Membership

If you've done your lineage research and you’re confident of your findings, your next step is to contact the Australian Historian who can work with you on your application for membership.

​

If you or a relative has previously joined the Mayflower Society in another country, please let our historian know as this will expedite the process. If you're not yet sure how you're connected to an original Mayflower passenger, see our guidance on how to research your lineage.

​

Your application goes on quite a journey before you can become a member, with the process taking 4-10 months. These are the steps involved:

​

1. Contact the Australian Society Historian and provide a proposed lineage consisting of the names of your line-carriers and their spouses.  Start with the Mayflower passenger, and list each generation to the present. No places or dates are needed at this stage. 

2. The Historian will review your lineage and advise you of any issues.  To determine how many generations need to be proved, the Historian may request the General Society to check whether there is an existing membership that matches your earlier generations.

3. Provide digital images of your documentation to the Historian for review.  Each generation has up to five events requiring documentation.  These are the birth, marriage and death of the line-carrier, along with the birth and death of the line-carrier's spouse. Additional documentation is required in some cases where the line-carrier is female and does not have the same family name at death as her children. The best documentation includes both parents and a mother's maiden name.

4. The Historian will advise of any potential issues and provide a draft of the formal application for your review.

5. Now it's time for you to pay the membership entrance fee and first-year dues. Should your application not be accepted by the General Society, only the first-year dues are refundable.

6. Once the Australian Society has received payment, the Historian will sign the application and post it to you, along with the supporting documentation, coded and collated.

7. You are now responsible for signing and mailing your application to the Historian General, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA.

8. If approved by the Historian General, you will be formally elected to the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, and receive a certificate confirming your descent from your Mayflower pilgrim ancestor.

​