February 26, 2021
The Iowa Genealogical Society issues certificates for founding families in Iowa. Those certificates are Statehood (1846), Pioneer (1856) and Centennial (100+ years). Since I was interested in the Statehood certificate, I set out to discover if any of my ancestors had settled in Iowa by 1846. Knowing that some of my father’s family had immigrated from Germany in the late 1800s, I decided to start my research on my mother’s side. As I went back through her parents and her paternal grandparents, I found that according to the 1856 census, my 3rd great-grandparents (pictured below) had resided in Iowa for 12 years. This would place them in Iowa 2 years prior to statehood and I had my documentation!
Excited to have this news, I shared my discovery with a genealogical friend. Thankfully, she thought to also search the surname in the Mayflower database and she found a hit for my 3rd great-grandfather on an application that was approved in 1940. What started as a minor task suddenly became much bigger.
Becoming certified and obtaining your membership in the General Society of Mayflower Descendants is a fairly lengthy process. You begin by working with your state society Historian, filling out a preliminary form that is just names of each generation between you and the Mayflower passenger. They will then work to determine what has already been proven through previous applications. The good news is you will not need to provide supporting documents for these generations. For the others, birth, marriage, and death certificates (or acceptable alternatives) for each generation are required.
Web searches, phone calls and emails to county recorder offices across the country are made for each and every individual until you have your documentation. You provide that to the Historian, who will review your documentation and if acceptable, write up your application and submit it all to Plymouth. It took four months before my application was ready to be submitted. And it took another three months for it to be approved.
So far I have identified eight passengers as my ancestors.
- Love Brewster and parents William and Mary
- Peter Browne
- George Soule
- Francis Cooke
- Richard Warren
- Edward Doty
(Updated June 20, 2025)
