Pilgrim Presidents
Nine times from Pilgrim to President
Since the Pilgrims came to American no fewer than nine of their descendants have made it to President. Presidents Taylor, Grant, Roosevelt, Bush sr. and jr. and Obama all have a Leiden Pilgrim ancestor.
John Adams - 1797-1801
His son John Quincy Adams - 1825-1829
Zachary Taylor - 1849-1850
Ulysses S. Grant - 1869-1877
James A. Garfield - 1881-1881
Franklin D. Roosevelt - 1933-1945
George H.W. Bush - 1989-1993
George W. Bush - 2001-2009
Barack H. Obama -- 2009 -
Take a look at the familytrees of these presidents
…and to mayor of New York
And how about Leiden-born Thomas Willett, who became the first mayor of New York? A letter by this Pilgrim, which he wrote to Hugh Goodyear, vicar of the English reformed church in Leiden on the 16th of September 1660, can be found in the archives in Leiden