Talk:Descendants of William Bradford (Plymouth governor)

Untitled
What are the requirements for being listed on this page? Does one have to be prominent in some way, or just descended from William Bradford? And if the latter, how are we to know for certain that people like
 * Matthew Rinker - b. 10/23/1991

are actual Bradford descendants, and not merely 19-year-old boys playing Wikipedia pranks? Chillowack (talk) 18:46, 26 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Each entry should have a citation verifying the person is actually a descendant of William Bradford, and should be notable enough to have a Wikipedia article of their own as well, or an article about something they were closely involved with. Tea and crumpets (talk) 00:53, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on List of descendants of William Bradford (Plymouth governor). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110720122603/http://www.americanancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/14_659_414.asp to http://www.americanancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_guests/gary_boyd_roberts/14_659_414.asp

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 12:37, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on List of descendants of William Bradford (Plymouth governor). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060902133314/http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/~hou00478 to http://oasis.harvard.edu:10080/oasis/deliver/~hou00478
 * Added tag to http://208.112.91.216/articles/article.cfm?request=436
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080101232756/http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/opinion/nyregionopinions/15CT_Sleeper.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss to http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/opinion/nyregionopinions/15CT_Sleeper.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100129085650/http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Noah_Webster to http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Noah_Webster

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 20:20, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Is this page necessary?
The page on William Bradford at the genealogy database, Geni, links to this page then also mentions that William Bradford has an estimated 4 million descendants. How many of these descendants are notable, and how many do we need to list here? How many of the people on this list already actually have verifiable sources to confirm they are descendants of William Bradford? Is this list in and of itself notable enough for Wikipedia?

Note that this page was originally a section in William Bradford (governor), but the list got too long, so it was moved. See Talk:William_Bradford_(governor) I have seen similar lists on other articles, and when one does not exist, editors will try to insert information about descendants wherever they think it is relevant. See for example the edit history for John Alden.

Personally I like having access to trivia like this, but I am concerned it is against wp:trivia. - Tea and crumpets (talk) 23:28, 28 June 2019 (UTC)


 * I think descendant lists are problematic, inconsistent and not notable enough for Wikipedia. In order to maintain such a list properly, every addition would need to be checked and verified. Labor intensive. The information exists elsewhere on many genealogical sites. And while I certainly understand the long tradition of maintaining descendant lists for the old New England families, why should Puritan/Pilgrim historical figures have descendant lists on Wikipedia while the vast majority of historical figures do not? I do not think this page is necessary on Wikipedia. Historical Perspective 2 (talk) 11:35, 2 July 2019 (UTC)

John Lithgow
If the information that Lithgow descends from William Bradford (of the Pilgrims/Mayflower fame) has been known since at least 1998, why did Lithgow act surprised to learn this information from Henry Louis Gates on the Finding Your Roots program in 2021? 173.88.246.138 (talk) 05:11, 17 April 2021 (UTC)