AN ELUSIVE SHIP
Many years ago I interviewed Cherry Pack, the granddaughter of OK "Mose" Barton (son of James Allen, son of Moses Barton of Walker Co., AL). Cherry said her grandfather could name our ancestors back to the time when our clan first came to America. He even knew the name of the ship our ancestors sailed on. He'd mentioned the name to her many times, but she'd been a child and not much interested in family history and simply couldn't remember the name. All she could recall him saying was that our Barton ancestors came over on the second ship.
This opens up a swarm of questions. Which second ship? The second ship to land at Charles Town (Charleston), SC, for instance, or the second ship to the VA colonies?
Starting at the beginning, I decided to find out the name of the ship which arrived in America after the Mayflower. That ship was called the Fortune. She left London in August and arrived at Cape Cod in November of 1621. Of the 35 passengers, all but 32 are known. None of the known passengers were Bartons, but the Captain of the ship was Thomas Barton. This may not be the right "second" ship. If only someone had recorded that ancestry OK "Mose" often related.
There are several sources of good information on the net about the Fortune and her passengers. Unfortunately, even though I've come across several previously, the following are the only ones I could locate for the present. When I find the others, I'll include their URLs. If anyone else should find a good source of information, please forward it by email.
For more information on the Fortune:
Emigration Ships http://listserv.northwest.com/~haight/Ships.htm
American Plantations and Colonies http://www.primenet.com/~langford/ships/shiplist.htm#top
Locating Ship Passenger Lists: http://www.genealogy.com/genealogy/8_mgpal.html
Lists of ships: http://www.daddezio.com/genealogy/ships/index.html
A lot of links: http://members.tripod.com/~Randy_T/index-1.html