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| Silver and Blue Books on my bookshelf (Read below for big changes to both!) |
There is some exciting news about the Silver Book Project! At the 2021 General Board of Assistants
meeting of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants in Plymouth,
Massachusetts last week, Bonnie Wade Mucia gave a great presentation on the new
changes at the Silver Book Project. She
was appointed Director of the Silver Books project in January 2021. In April this year, she also gave an overview
of the changes at the Extreme Genes podcast (see below for the link).
The Silver Book Project is over 100 years old, and started out as the Five Generations Project. Many books have been produced over the years, and some are still "In Progress", and others have become outdated. Now, over a dozen new editions of the Silver Books are under
research or being prepared for publication soon! This includes a new Silver Books Directory,
which will be an index of all the Silver Books.
It also includes a new 60 page style guide for the current and future
silver books.
To keep up with all the coming changes you will be able to
see some of this new information soon on the updated website for the General
Society of Mayflower Descendants, which will available this fall. There will be a dedicated Silver Book page on
the new website. Bonnie Wade Mucia also
has started a new Facebook page for the Silver Books that went live on the day
of the announcement in Plymouth. See
below for the links. Another big change
is that all Silver Book changes/edits/corrections are all going to be listed in
the Mayflower Quarterly magazine, which will also be available online at the
new website.
[UPDATE 5 November 2022 - Bonnie Wade Mucia has removed the Facebook page for the Silver Books. She wrote me a note "As you know, it takes a while to produce a Silver book so there’s not a lot of updates on the project during a year. I’m still working on the index I hope to have that out within the next year and the books are all in progress. Rogers part three will be out soon as well"]
My favorite new change to this project is that the GSMD will
now be listing the wife’s names on the cover of the Silver Books for Volumes 16
which will now read John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, and the Volumes 23
which will read John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley.
The website will contain a future form for submitting
corrections, and the GSMD will be vetting those corrections for future editions
of the Silver Books. If you have new documentation
on a Mayflower line, contact Bonnie Wade Mucia!
Her email is silverbooks@themayflowersociety.org
Some of the works in progress (there are a lot more changes
coming!):
Currently Chilton and More descendants are combined in
Volume 15. This will change since two
new children of Chilton (Christian and Ingle) have been discovered in Leiden
with generations of descendants.
Volume 16, page 7 – John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, 5th
generation naming the 6th generation descendants of Rebecca (Alden)
Delano.
Volume 23, includes descendants of John Howland and
Elizabeth Tilley. There were ten children, all with descendants. The four
eldest children (Desire, John, Hope and Elizabeth) had blue bound books published
by Picton Press, now out of business (out of print!). There will be new Silver
books for these volumes, and the numbering for the other Howland volumes will
be changed.
Funds are required to complete the Silver Book for Moses
Fletcher, who also left family in Leiden, and has living descendants, today.
Funds are also required to update Volume 14, Standish, and several other
books. Bonnie is hoping that some of the
family societies will come forward with donations towards the Silver Book
Projects for these volumes that need updating.
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| Bonnie Wade Mucia speaking at the Governor General's Forum September 10th, 2021 Plymouth, Massachusetts |
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| A mock up of the new cover for Volume 23, part 5 of the new Silver Book which will add the name of John Howland's wife Elizabeth Tilley |
Extreme Genes Podcast Episode 370 (April 2021) “The Mayflower Silver Book Project Expands” https://www.extremegenes.com/blog/episode-370-mayflower-silver-book-project-expands-actress-patricia-heaton-talks-family-history-with-fisher
The Mayflower Silver Books Project Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/537404344187696/
The General Society of Mayflower Descendants website (new
version coming soon with the Silver Book pages): https://www.themayflowersociety.org/
The Reference Guide to the GSMD Silver Books (this file is
available as PDF file via the Facebook group).
It details all the Silver Books and what is included in each one. This is invaluable for people searching for
which book might include their family’s branch, or which book to purchase for
your lineage.
A past blog post "Why are there blue Silver Books?":
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/01/why-are-there-blue-silver-books.html
I don't believe "all corrections" are going to be listed in the Mayflower Quarterly (which will only be available through the website to members). Major changes such as additions or deletions of children and their associated lines will continue to be printed in the journal. More minor corrections, such as corrections to dates, spellings, citations, etc. will only be available through the website. However, the errata will be available to everyone through the website, not just members.
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