How to Walk in the Footsteps of the Pilgrims

The 2017 GSMD Historic Sites Tour at Scrooby Manor

You can walk in the footsteps of the Pilgrims, too!

I’ve been blogging about my tour of England and The Netherlands with the General Society of Mayflower Descendants’ Historic Sites Tour.  Many people have commented on my blog posts, Facebook pages and by email, asking me how to take a similar tour.  Well, folk, you are in luck!  Because the 400^th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrim in Plymouth, Massachusetts (in the year 1620) is coming so soon, there are many opportunities to take a tour like I took in September.

Option #1)  The tour I took was the “Historic Sites Tour” offered by the Mayflower Society.  Every few years this tour is organized by the Historic Sites Committee.  You can read their page on the official GSMD website here:  https://www.themayflowersociety.org/committees/historic-sites  at the moment, there is no new tour being offered, but stay tuned to this website for more information coming before 2020. 

Option #2)  The New England Historic Genealogical Society will be offering at least 4 different tours in the years before 2020!  Here are the four options

A.)  “Pilgrim Roots of the Great Migration” August 7 – 15, 2018 lead by Robert Charles Anderson

B.)  “Pilgrim Escape to Leiden” 2019  (Leiden, Delfshaven and Amsterdam)

C.)  “Mayflower Embarkation” Spring 2020 (Plymouth, Southampton, London, Harwich, Canterbury)

D.)  “New England Sojourn” June and September 2020  (in Massachusetts to Plymouth, Provincetown, Boston, Duxbury, etc)

See their webpage https://www.americanancestors.org/heritage-tours   

Option #3)   Check in with the Plymouth 400 webpage for tours as we near the year 2020.  This is the organization planning a huge commemoration in Plymouth, Massachusetts and other towns nearby. Their webpage is http://www.plymouth400inc.org/   

Option #4)   Just like the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts--  Plymouth in England is also planning a big commemoration of the events in 1620.  Their official webpage is http://www.mayflower400uk.org/ where you can find a link “Travel Trade” http://www.mayflower400uk.org/travel-trade/ for organized tours.

Option #5)  You can take a tour with Sue Allan, the author and guide with whom we met on our tour in Scrooby Manor, Austerfield and Babworth.  You can read more about her tours at her webpage:  http://mayflowermaid.com/mayflower_pilgrim_tours  

Good luck, and have fun!

2017 GSMD Historic Sites tour participants at the
ferry port in Harwich, heading to the Hook of Holland

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "How to Walk in the Footsteps of the Pilgrims", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 19, 2017, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/11/how-to-walk-in-footsteps-of-pilgrims.html: accessed [access date]).