White (Y-DNA)

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Status summary

As of 9 June 2018:

  • Recruiting Y-DNA descendants of William White for Next Generation Sequence/Whole Genome Sequence (NGS/WGS) testing

Background

Paper trail

Recent research by Caleb Johnson, Susan Allen, & Simon Neal[1] has determined William White was baptized at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England, 25 Jan 1586/7 the son of Edward White & Thomasine CROSS May.[2] William was an uncle to Dorothy May, who was the first wife of Gov. William Bradford.

William's mother died in 1591 and his father died in 1594. William and his sister, Martha, were then raised by their maternal grandmother, Jacomine and her second husband, Thomas Robinson. Thomas died in 1595 and William's sister died in 1608. While this large number of family deaths is very unusual and shocking to us today, it was not a rare occurrence during William's time. William and his half-siblings (his mother was a widow when she married her father) received permission to settle in Amsterdam, Holland in 1608. This likely indicates William was a Separatist, or at least believed in a religion other than the official Church of England.

William married Susanna Jackson, likely at Amsterdam, likely about 1615. The couple had two known sons: Resolved (about 1616) and Peregrine (born aboard the Mayflower around the end of November 1620).[3] The family decided to emigrate with some of the Scrooby congregation and William died at the New Plimouth colony on 21 Feb 1620/1. The widow Susanna married widowed Edward Winslow on 12 May 1621, being the first marriage in the new colony.

Second Generation

William & Susanna had two sons before William's death.

Resolved[4] was born in England, about 1615. He died sometime after September 19, 1687. He and his first wife were buried in Winslow Cemetery, Marshfield. He was married twice, but all of his children were by his first wife, Judith Vassall, daughter of William Vassall (married 5 Nov 1640 in Scituate). They had eight children born in Scituate between 1642 and 1656: William, John, Samuel, Resolved, Anna, Elizabeth, Josiah & Susanna.

Peregrine[5] was born aboard the Mayflower while it was anchored in what is now called Providence Harbor. He died at Marshfield on 20 Jul 1704. He married Sarah Bassett, daughter of William Bassett, before 6 Mar 1648/9 and had seven children: Daniel, child, Jonathan, Peregrine, Sarah, Sylvanus & Mercy. See Daniel, page 19 for one line of descendants who lived on the homestead.

Third Generation

William White

John White

Samuel White was born Scituate 13 Mar 1645/6 and died Rochester 20 Sep 1720. He married Rebecca _____ and they had nine children: John, Samuel, Melatiah, Judee, Susannah, Hezekiah, Penelope, William and Elizabeth


  1. Caleb Johnson's MayflowerHistory.com White profile
  2. Edward and the widow Thomasine were married at Wisbech on 11 Jan 1584.
  3. It is also possible the couple had either a stillborn child, or a child who died in infancy about 1618.
  4. See page 5 of this issue for one line of Resolved
  5. see page 9 of this newsletter for one line.

DNA Results R1b-M222

Previous Y-DNA testing

Previous Y-STR testing found at both the Mayflower DNA Project and the White surname DNA Project has suggested that William White belongs to the Y haplogroup R1b-M269, which is quite common in Western Europe. In addition, the Nevgen.org R1b clade predictor has further refined the clade to likely fall under R1b L21>DF13>Z39589>DF49>>M222 with 99.99% probability.

According to the R M222 and Subclades Project "This diagnostic marker is associated with many individuals whose ancestry lies in the counties of Ulster (Northern Ireland), Northwest Ireland, and Scotland including certain Highland, Lowland, Western and North Eastern counties, and is not restricted to known ancestry in the UK/Ireland region." Thus, it appears William White's Y-DNA ancestors likely moved from Ulster Ireland to Scotland to Northern England and finally settling at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, where William was baptized.

NGS/WGS testing

NGS/WGS testing will confirm the placement of the White family and (with sufficient testing) identify descendant subclades.

References and External links

  • Sherman, Robert M. & Ruth W. (re-edited by Robert S. Wakefield), Mayflower Families through Five Generations: vol. 13 White General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Plymouth, MA. Third edition 2006
  • Roser, Susan E., Mayflower Passenger References (from contemporary records & scholarly journals) [www.stewartbooks.com Stewart Publishing & Printing], Canada. Second Edition, 2015
  • Anderson, Robert Charles, The Mayflower Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth, 1620 New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA 2020
  • Johnson, Caleb, Sue Allan and Simon Neal, The American Genealogist vol. 89 (2017):81-94, 168-88, 241-64