Family Myths

My maiden name is Adams.  My family descends from John Adams that came to the United States on "The Fortune" which was the supply ship for "The Mayflower."  Pretty neat, right?  My family has been here since before the American Revolution---by over 150 years!  I grew up "knowing" that I was related to President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams.  This "fact" is actually what inspired my drive to learn about my ancestors.  At the ripe age of 10, I wrote a letter to the Adams National Historic Site asking about genealogical research and how I might be related to the two presidents.
 
Guess what?  They didn't have any reference to how my Adams family was related.  So at 10 years old, I set out to prove them wrong.  I did a major family history project in school.  Couldn't figure it out.  Nothing ever made sense.  But, I had the family tree from a genealogist that had been commissioned by someone in my family that said, "You are related to these two presidents."  It had to be true, right?
 
Wrong again.  As I got older and computer research developed, I learned that there was a book that had been written that possibly had misinformation.  In the "Memorial of Captain Thomas Abbey" (pg. 49) there is a passage about my ancestor John Adams that says:

"John Adams, who came to Plymouth on the Fortune in 1621, was the first of the name to set foot on these shores, but the descendants of his brother Henry, who settled in Braintree in 1640, have outstripped those of the first arrival and included more illustrious men in a single direct line that any other family in America."

Henry Adams of Braintree was the ancestor of  United States Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.  However, now that documentation and records and DNA testing have all become more readily available, it appears that John Adams was not the brother of Henry, it was more likely an assumption made than a statement based on fact.  In fact the exact origin of John Adams of Plymouth, Massachusetts remains unknown.

What? That means I am not related to the Presidents?  But I was told that I was and I will prove it.  Well, I can't prove it through the Adams line, but I found another way to prove it!  Turns out the names we should have been focusing on were female lines of passengers of "The Mayflower."  Yes!  I proved it, with much better documentation and, yes, I am in fact related to not only President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams, but also to Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush along with many other famous Americans. 

I guess the point of this story is, don't believe everything you have been told about your ancestry, but don't disbelieve the family myths either, the truth can be revealed, it just might take some digging!

~Christine