Delving deeply into her roots, Helen Hughart Pratt has traced her ancestry back to the Mayflower, which landed in Plymouth, Mass., in 1620.
The Old Mission Township resident traced back through 11 generations of ancestors back to Stephen Hopkins, one of 102 passengers crowded onto the small ship. She meticulously documented each generation as she went, compiling copies of birth, death, marriage and census records, as well as obituaries where possible, into a file.
She decided last summer to apply for membership in the national and state Society of Mayflower Descendents. Pratt spent four months putting together all her findings, making copies and completing a lengthy form before applying last October.
The society approved her application in January, to her delight and that of her grandchildren, who took an interest in the process. Pratt joins millions of descendants of those original Pilgrims, though only a fraction have documented their history and joined the society.
Pratt's files — one manila folder per generation — contain copies of original papers with the place, book and page number listing where she found the information. She is currently listing all the books used along the way, reaching 1,000 so far and not yet done.
"It's like putting together pieces of a puzzle," said Pratt, a retired kindergarten teacher, of her research. "You travel around a lot and find things in libraries, cemeteries, courthouses and archives."
"The more you find out you know, the more you want to know," she added.
Pratt and her husband, Don, a retired engineer, became interested in genealogy 30 years ago after taking a class while living in Birmingham. The Traverse City Senior High sweethearts, married 60 years, shelved the hobby until they retired and returned to the area in 1989. Then they took it up in earnest and traced his family back a few generations to their arrival from Germany in the 1800s.
Pratt's family, however, quickly became a research project that stretched back to some of the country's first European settlements.
"I found several old books showing our line going back, I had never really thought much about it before," said Pratt of her Mayflower ancestry, which follows her father's line.
The Michigan Society of Mayflower Descendents boasts about 600 members and holds two annual meetings: a spring luncheon and a meeting around Thanksgiving. The society has a researcher who helps people document their connection to a Mayflower descendent, said Beverly Poole of Holton.
This researcher makes sure everything is in order, working with an applicant to fill any holes in the timeline. By the time the state society forwards on an application, they are pretty sure that it will be accepted by the national society in Plymouth, Mass.
"It takes a long time, sometimes documenting back through many ancestors," noted Poole, a member of the board of assistants for the Michigan society and a descendent of Edward Doty. "[The researcher] can say, 'You really need a little more on this one or that one,' and give them places where they might go to find more information."
Pratt and her husband traveled to numerous states during her quest, sifting through old records to find a needed name or a family connection. She did use the Internet for help but found it worked more as a guide than as a final answer.
"You can find all sorts of information on the Internet, but there's no guarantee that it's accurate," she said. "The computer is fine and it gives you leads, but there's no way to document it."
"All the research is to be sure we're getting it right," Pratt added.