In terms of Pilgrims, we often think not so much of all 102 passengers on board the Mayflower in 1620, but of the male Pilgrims who “left issue:”

John Alden, Isaac Allerton, John Billington, William Bradford, William Brewster, Peter Browne, James Chilton, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Francis Eaton, Moses Fletcher, Edward Fuller, Samuel Fuller, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, Richard More, William Mullins, Degory Priest, Thomas Rogers, Henry Samson, George Soule, Myles Standish, John Tilley, Richard Warren, William White and Edward Winslow.

These 26 are the Pilgrims from whom thousands have people have proved descent and joined the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Of course, if you have John Alden as an ancestor, you have Priscilla Mullins also. And if Isaac Allerton is your forebear, so is his wife, Mary Allerton.

And as we research and learn more about particular families and-or geographical locations, we come to think of some of those as having Mayflower connections, too.

Say you have a Packard line up in Piscataquis County, or over in the Hebron area. My James Packard of Hartford and Parkman had both Revolutionary War and Mayflower ancestors.

His parents, Elnathan Packard and Rebecca Dunham, were each the child of a Revolutionary War veteran – one of Edward Packard, the other of James Dunham, both from Bridgewater, Mass.

And, Elnathan had two lines back to Pilgrim Francis Cooke through his grandmothers, Susannah (Mitchell) Packard and Rebecca (Mitchell) Pope, who were first cousins.

Their fathers, Thomas Mitchell and Jacob Mitchell, were both sons of Experience Mitchell and Jane (Cooke), and grandsons of Francis Cooke.

Mitchell is not that uncommon a name, but if you find you have Mitchells back in the late 1600s, it’s worth thinking about Cooke.

Rebecca Mitchell, moreover, had a line back to Pilgrims Isaac and Mary Allerton through their daughter, Mary, who married Thomas Cushman. So Cushman is another one of those surnames that may lead you to the Mayflower.

Many libraries have books about the Pilgrims and their families, and of course there is a vast amount of material on the Web. You may want to start with the site for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, www.mayflower.org.

As I write this, I haven’t yet seen the History Channel’s “Desperate Crossing: Untold Story of the Mayflower,” but I certainly plan to.

The documentary came to my attention through a newsletter e-mailed from the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Michael Leclerc noted that the program includes commentary from representatives of Plimoth Plantation, universities in this country and Great Britain, and the Wampanoag tribe.

Leclerc describes the program as “a new special that shows many were young, passionate rebels who disagreed vehemently with their king’s religion.” Further, he says that “Desperate Crossing” illuminates the lives of the women who came over on the Mayflower, as well as the men.

“The special digs deeper into the stories surrounding these brave men and women, painting them more as human beings,” Leclerc wrote. “It examines the emotional underpinnings of events that shaped their future. Viewers leave with a better understanding of these courageous people who left everything familiar behind them in a quest to live by their own rules.”

The program has aired twice already, but also will be shown at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 23, at midnight Friday (12 a.m. as Thursday turns into Friday), and 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 26.

May this Thanksgiving find us grateful for our many blessings.

3382. MANSELL. Looking for the death record of John Mansell, who died in 1801 in Bangor, lived in Brewer area. Pat Denner, 18 Dexter St., Bangor, ME 04401; BPDENFAM@aol.com

3383. McINTYRE. Looking for info on family of Roscoe W. McIntyre, Aroostook County. I believe he had a brother Bert, and there was a line of White families also connected. My grandmother, his wife, was Annie Holmes, she may have been born in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick. Judy A. Hardy, P.O. Box 746, Spanaway, WA 98387; bobbyandjudyhardy@msn.com

Send genealogy queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or familyti@bangordailynews.net.