Survivor
I wrote previously about John Howland, who may be an ancestor of mine (see Hanging by a thread, er, rope , June 24, 2022). For those who don't remember -- and who would? -- Howland survived falling overboard on the Mayflower, surviving only because in the storm that caused his misfortune, some lines had come loose and were hanging over the side. He managed to grab one of those and hang on until he was rescued. He would later marry a woman named Elizabeth Tilley, who also turns out to be one of my ancestors not just because of her marriage, but because her parents were on board and show to be in my direct lineage. John and Joan Tilley left England on the Mayflower with their youngest daughter to come to the new land for the same reason most of the other passengers did -- they belonged to the dissenting group known to us as Pilgrims and sought freedom to practice their version of Christianity outside of the constraints of the Church of England. The other children had reached majorit