Descendants of the Mayflower will be the focus of a talk titled “The Mayflower Factor,” presented by Historian Jerry Roberts on Thursday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Carriage House, 245 Main Street in Deep River.

The talk, which is the second in a lecture series presented by the Deep River Historical Society (DRHS), is free to the public. No registration is required.

Roberts’s exposition of history is well timed with the anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in November 1620, said DRHS Curator Rhonda Forristall.

“He mentions the thousands of Mayflower descendants and the achievements of those individuals as well as the contributions they have given to America,” said Forristall.

A maritime historian, Roberts has worked on countless exhibits detailing the age of discovery as former vice president of exhibits at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.

“It’s one of the great American maritime stories because it isn’t just Norman Rockwell and pilgrims and brass buckles on shoes,” said Roberts. “First of all, it’s a major sea voyage, a harrowing, 66-day voyage and it was unprecedented.”

The detailed record keeping of the pilgrims, especially the accounts of William Bradford, who became the governor of the Plymouth Colony, helped document those who lived and died.

There was a high casualty rate of those aboard the Mayflower, with just 45 of the 102 passengers surviving the first winter, according to historical accounts.

Roberts, who is a direct descendant of Bradford, said that these deaths are very real for his own family, and others like his.

“If William Bradford and a few other people on the ship had died…the 12 generations leading to my family, which represents thousands and thousands and thousands of us, never would have been born,” said Roberts.

He adds that a minimum of 10 million Americans are direct descendants of someone from the Mayflower, with some experts predicting that it could be as high as 35 million Americans.

Roberts credits his parents, who loved history, for doing the genealogical research that uncovered their family’s direct connection to Bradford.

“That sounds cool, but I tell people when I talk, I just happened to know what’s in some of the branches of my family trees,” said Roberts. “We all have huge family trees. If you look at the map of family trees, it’s unbelievable.”

Uncovering a familial connection to the Mayflower or other significant historical event is possible for many others through genealogical research, he said.

“I tell every single person, ‘You have a Mayflower story,’” said Roberts. “Your family has a Mayflower story. It may be a ship from Italy come to Ellis Island. It may be your family came on a slave ship. It may be your family came across the Mexican border. It may be your family came on one of the thousands of other ships that came from England after the Mayflower.

“But every family has a Mayflower story of how their family got here and how it struggled to get here,” he continued.

Roberts, who is also an author and has appeared in various documentaries, said that his lecture style will appeal to a diverse group of people and reflects his way of thinking about history.

“A lot of people inherently think that they don’t like history because they think it’s all about dates and tests and so forth,” said Roberts. “And I tell people it’s not about that at all. History is nothing more and nothing less than the story of you and me. History is the story of us.

“And what’s more interesting than the story of us?” he added.

For those who are interested but cannot attend the event, the lecture will be made available on the YouTube channel of the historical society. More information is available at www.deepriverhistoricalsociety.org.