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How many US presidents are descendants of the Mayflower pilgrims?
Executive summary
Available reporting identifies at least a half‑dozen U.S. presidents with documented Mayflower ancestry — most commonly cited are John Adams (and his son John Quincy Adams), Zachary Taylor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush — with several other presidents appearing in compiled descendant lists depending on how distant or collateral the link is [1] [2] [3]. Sources differ on totals because genealogical claims vary by source, and some presidents have only distant or collateral ties that different organizations count or exclude [2] [3].
1. How many presidents do the big genealogies count?
Authoritative Mayflower‑oriented groups and repeated media lists consistently name John Adams (and John Quincy Adams), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Zachary Taylor, and the two Bush presidents as having Mayflower roots; generalized descendant lists and hobbyist sites expand that roster to include additional presidents through collateral or very remote lines, which is why a single precise number is hard to extract from the compiled reporting [1] [2] [3].
2. Which presidents are most consistently named?
John Adams — and by descent, his son John Quincy Adams — is repeatedly cited as descending from John Alden and Priscilla Mullins (a Mayflower line) in FamilySearch and Mayflower Society material [4] [1]. Franklin D. Roosevelt is consistently connected to multiple Pilgrims including Isaac Allerton and John Howland [5] [3]. George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush are widely reported as descendants of John Howland, Francis Cooke and others [5] [3].
3. Where reporting diverges: distant and collateral lines
Some lists broaden “Mayflower descendant” to include collateral relatives or very remote lines (for example, descendants of cousins who later married into presidential families), which inflates counts; mayflower‑enthusiast compilations and genealogical hobby sites commonly include additional presidents like Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, and others, while institutional pages emphasize those with clearer direct descent [2] [6] [3]. The variation in editorial criteria explains why Mental Floss, History, MayflowerHistory.com and FamilySearch produce overlapping but non‑identical rosters [6] [3] [2] [4].
4. Examples of presidents with contested or indirect ties
Press and local reporting note presidents with “Plymouth colony ties” who are not always listed as direct Mayflower descendants — for example Barack Obama’s family is linked to early New England settlers on ships other than the 1620 Mayflower, and some presidents (Nixon, Ford) are reported as tied to later Plymouth families rather than first‑voyage Pilgrims; these distinctions appear in Mayflower Society and local news writeups and are important when claiming direct Mayflower descent [1] [7].
5. Why genealogical counts vary — and why that matters
Genealogy is cumulative: a small colonial population and centuries of intermarriage create many distant cousins, so the number of presidents with any Plymouth or early‑New‑England ancestor is larger than the number who can trace a direct line to a specific Mayflower passenger. Mayflower organizations often publicize thousands or millions of living descendants, and hobbyist lists include broader kinship lines; reputable sources therefore distinguish between direct descent from a Mayflower passenger and more general Plymouth colony ancestry [8] [9].
6. How to get a precise, defensible answer for a given president
To be specific about any one president, consult primary Mayflower‑focused genealogies or the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, which list individual lineages [1] [9]. For a definitive count of “how many presidents,” expect different answers depending on whether you count: only direct lines to 1620 passengers; direct plus collateral lines; or any Plymouth colony ancestor. Available published compilations repeatedly identify at least John Adams (and John Quincy Adams), Zachary Taylor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush as Mayflower descendants, with other presidents added by some sources [1] [3] [2].
Limitations and next steps: my summary uses the provided reporting; sources supplied do not present a single canonical tally of presidents descended from Mayflower passengers and do not uniformly list every president the same way, so a definitive numeric answer depends on your counting rules [1] [2]. If you want, I can produce a candidate list of presidents with cited lineage claims from the supplied sources and note which sources include each name.