The most difficult part of anything is getting started. It will be easier in the beginning to start with yourself and work back through the generations.

Keep in mind that you are interested in four key items: names, relationships, dates and places (birth, marriage, death).

We suggest that you use the sample GSMD Preliminary Review Form.

DO NOT FORWARD THAT FORM TO THIS STATE SOCIETY as we have no sources to verify claims beyond the first four or five generations. The best way to find if there are any further generations on file with the Mayflower Society beyond the first four or five that they have published in their Five Generation project, is to send the Preliminary Review Form listing your lineage down to you with a check for $10.00 payable to "GSMD" to: Historian General, GSMD, P.O. Box 3297, Plymouth, MA 02361-3297. Ask the Historian General to please check their files and send you a photocopy of the most recent well-documented lineage that follows your line. The Five Generations Project publications (including the "in-progress" four generation booklets) are recognized as a source and no further proof is required for those generations if the publications are listed as the source.

Once you have submitted your application form you will be sent a package of instructions, a lineage worksheet and various materials containing helpful hints to get you on your way.

Libraries to which the Pennsylvania Society has given and maintains complete collections of the General Mayflower Society’s Mayflower Families Through Five Generations books: