Pilgrims’ Pride : Mayflower Passengers Honored by Chips Off Plymouth Rock

One by one, the names of 23 of the Pilgrims who had come to America on the Mayflower rang out across the meeting room.

And one by one, their descendants stood.

For Elsie Mettlach of San Diego, that meant standing 13 times.

At one point the sprightly 90-year-old laughed and said::

“I owe my stamina and fortitude to my 13 Pilgrim ancestors.”

Mettlach, author of “The Pilgrims: 1620 and Beyond,” was among 70 Pilgrim descendants--all members of the San Diego Colony of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants--who gathered at the Miramar Naval Air Station Officer’s Club for the traditional Thanksgiving meeting.

At this time of year, membership in the society takes on special significance. Similar get-togethers are held in all 50 states as the holiday approaches. At each assemblage, the procedure is the same: The Mayflower Compact is read, members stand when their Pilgrim ancestors’ names are announced and they recite the Pilgrims’ Pledge, promising to emulate the spirit of their ancestors.

Next to Massachusetts, California has more members of the Mayflower Society--2,200--than any other state. California’s 16 colonies are equally divided between the northern and southern parts of the state; the Los Angeles chapter is California’s largest, with 317 members, followed by San Diego, with 239. Bakersfield is the smallest, with 37 members.

Mayflower descendants come from all walks of life. They are rich and poor, high school dropouts and college graduates. Some live in mansions, others are homeless. They are of various religions--Catholic, Protestant, Jewish. Some are atheist.

Many Mayflower descendants are black. Some are part Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese. In the 1800s, a descendant of Elder William Brewster, for example, migrated from Connecticut to Nicaragua. Twenty of the Nicaraguan Mayflower descendants moved to Los Angeles in recent years and are members of the organization.

Humphrey Bogart was a descendant of John Howland; Bing Crosby of William Brewster; Orson Welles of Richard Warren. President Bush is a descendant of Howland, and the First Lady is a descendant of Degory Priest.

One of the most dedicated members of the Mayflower Society in California is Edith Thomas, 65, of Fremont, a former state governor of the organization and its historian in California for the last 20 years. A former high school art teacher, she is the national chairman of the society’s Five Generation Project.

“We’re compiling the names of all the Pilgrim descendants through the fifth generation. That takes us up to the time of the American Revolution,” she said.

“I work eight hours a day, seven days a week as historian. I’m a volunteer; it isn’t a paying job. I love it. It’s like solving puzzles. It’s better than reading novels. It makes history come alive,” she said.

Her enthusiasm is shared by Edward Flint, 76, a retired aerospace engineer and inventor with 51 patents. He is governor of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in California. Flint found out he was a Mayflower descendant in 1983.

“I have always been a history buff and interested in genealogy. My brother and I own a 1685 house in my hometown, Lincoln, Mass., that has five British soldiers buried in the back yard,” Flint said.

He noted that each colony holds three or four meetings a year. “The society has a national program to better inform children about the role played by Pilgrims in the early history of this nation,” said Flint, explaining:

“Mayflower Society members distribute thousands of ‘Coming to America’ kits to schools that tell the story of Plymouth Colony.”

Chapters of the society sponsor receptions following swearing-in ceremonies for new citizens. Members work as volunteers at veterans’ hospitals and perform many other patriotic deeds. They conduct essay and speech contests in schools centering on Pilgrim themes and award college scholarships.

And members help those wishing to join the organization trace their lineage, if possible, to someone who sailed to the New World aboard the Mayflower.

But the purpose of the group might have best been expressed by Charlotte Leonard, 69, of Leucadia, a descendant of William White. “History seems more important when there is a personal connection,” she said.