Champlain residents traces maternal lineage to the Mayflower

Oct. 15—CHAMPLAIN — Champlain resident John H. Berkman, Jr. is one of 35 million descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims.

It was another matter for him to prove to the Mayflower Society his lineage to one of the 102 men, women and children who departed from Plymouth, UK on September 16, 1620 and spent 66 days on the Atlantic Ocean to land at Cape Cod, Mass.

PURITAN STOCK

There are nine generations between Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford and John, a U.S. Army veteran and Immigration & Naturalization (INS) retiree.

John grew up in Dickinson Center, Franklin County.

On his genealogical odyssey, he discovered ancestors from the 1800s and early 1900s, who grew up there also and are buried in East Dickinson.

John and his wife, Ann, started researching his family tree off and on 15 years ago.

"I just got on Ancestry," he said.

"I was on that, and one thing led to another."

"When we retired, he started doing his family tree on Ancestry," Ann said.

"He had no idea that he went back to the Mayflower. On Ancestry as he was going along, he was able to discover that his third great-grandmother was Emily Nash Clark. She came from Vermont to Dickinson in the 1800s. He traced Emily's research back."

John found Emily listed in the book, "History of the Town of Gilsum, New Hampshire From 1752-1879."

"Cheshire County, New Hampshire," he said.

"In the book, it listed his third great-grandmother as Emily Nash," Ann said.

"If you go into the research of the book of Gilsum, Emily's grandmother, Matilda Waters, is the third great-granddaughter of William Bradford of the Mayflower."

John also did a DNA test on Ancestry that matched back.

"They can verify to the fifth generation of accuracy to that part," Ann said.

"He knew that it was probably correct. But in order to be accepted to the Mayflower Society, they require documentation. They have documented from the Mayflower to the first five generations, Mayflower Families. The Mayflower Society is very specific. You have to prove from that fifth or fourth generation up, you have to give them actual documents to prove your descendancy to the Mayflower."

"DAUNTING TASK'

In order to do so, John had to obtain birth, marriage, and death records of his ancestors to himself.

"Which the Mayflower Society says is a very daunting task," Ann said.

"Probably five years ago, we started to going to all over northern New York to try and gather the documents because if you go to Albany, NY that has documentation, they're backed up by three years. His mother's birth record was in Town of Bombay, but unfortunately the town office burned to the ground. The only person who had the documentation was Albany."

John and Ann gathered quite a few documents over a couple of years, and finally they had no choice but to tap Albany's archives for seven or eight documents.

John filled out the required applications, sent payment, and prepared to wait.

"Three years went by," Ann said.

"Basically, he said, 'Well, I'm never going to get these documents to prove it,'" Ann said.

"Until one day when he goes to the mailbox, all of them suddenly appear. Every single document that he requested was there. When he got all the documentation and went through it, he contacted the Mayflower Society."

SEAL OF APPROVAL

The review process started with the Mayflower Society of New York.

"They have to approve it first, and they forward it over to Mayflower (General Society of Mayflower Descendants) in Plymouth, Massachusetts to the bigwigs," John said.

"It takes six months of reviewing all the documentation that you submit to them in order to determine if everything is correct," Ann said.

"They want to make sure that you have to match the documentation that they look at, not only the documentation you submit, they look at anything like census records and other documentation. They are very picky on what they will and will not accept."

"If you ever look at how to become a member of the Mayflower Society, you will certainly see how daunting it is," John said.

"It's quite a task."

NASH LINE

John is descended from Bradford through his mother, Luella June Snyder.

"I never knew at the time," he said.

"I grew up around Dickinson Center in Franklin County, and my third great-grandmother and my second great-grandmother, Nash, she is buried in East Dickinson."

It took about a year for before the Mayflower Society in New York to review his application.

"At first, they shot it back and said there was no proof in it," John said.

"The lady down in New York at the Mayflower Society says, 'There is no such a thing as that.' I had all the records, and I said you're 100 percent wrong. It went back, and she said, 'Oh, my God, you do have all the records.' I said, 'Yes.'"

LOCAL BRADFORDS

John's application was forward to Massachusetts for approval.

"I also found out that up in the Union Cemetery in Morrisonville, there are Bradfords that come off my life," he said.

"Elisha Bradford is buried in Union Cemetery."

"He's the third great-grandson of William Bradford of the Mayflower," Ann said.

"They are buried right there in Union Cemetery," John said.

"I thought that was something else. There's also a Bradford Road up there in Morrisonville. On my tree, it shows them listed as cousins."

John was assigned the Albany Colony of the Mayflower Society.

"I get to go the museums and all that free," he said.

"I get a quarterly magazine."

"It's something just to go back and take a look, and you discover who you are related to and how far it goes back until you start doing your family history," Ann said.

"He's a true patriot in that his line has so many Revolutionary War soldiers in it that fought in the American Revolution as Patriots. It's amazing. The Clarks over in Vermont, Emily Nash, her husband, Benjamin Clark, his father was at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Revolutionary War. They have a book on the Clarks."

NAME GAMES

John's advice to others aspiring to join the Mayflower Society:

"Don't give up," he said.

"Keep plugging at it. It's the only way you're going to do it. There's umpteen information, especially on Ancestry and in your community. I went around all over. I can name off all these places that I went.

"Sometimes, they turn you down and sometimes you got to be persistent and stand there and say, 'Let me see that document.' Sometimes, the spelling of the names have changed. In Malone, I had to tell the girl, 'Let me look at that. That's him, right there.' They have a different spelling for the last name. Carsons and Corsons. You got to keep pushing them, and plugging at it."

Now, the plank to the Mayflower Society is gilded for their son, Kevin Berkman, and daughter, Julie Berkman-Ziemba.

"They can just take my line and just submit their birth certificates and marriage certificates, and they can get a certificate, too," John said.

"Any of the other people that come off of that line, the Clarks and Nashes, can also start from where they've documented down and just present their birth, marriage, and death certificates; they can also apply," Ann said.

"I put all the records online on Ancestry — birth, death and marriage records, so if anybody else wants to jump on the bandwagon," John said.

"I'm 75 years old. I'm not going to live that much longer. Let's throw it out there. Let them have it."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell