General Notes

!Charles Edward Banks, in his book The English Ancestry and Homes of
the Pilgrim Fathers,1929, puts forward a theory that John is the son of
George Alden and Jane (---) and grandson of Richard and Avys Alden of
Southampton, England. Since Bradford says John Alden was
hired in Southampton, this would be a logical place to start looking for
Aldens. No other supporting evidence has been found, and it has been
noted by many researchers that the names
George, Richard, and Avys do not occur anywhere in John Alden's family.
Naming children after parents and grandparents was an extremely
common practice in the seventeenth century,
and the absence of such a name is nearly enough evidence to disprove
this theory.
!The currently popular theory is that John Alden came from Harwich,
Essex, England. There was a sea-faring Alden family living there, who
were related by marriage to Christopher Jones, captain of the Mayflower.
It has been suggested John Alden may be the son of John Alden and
Elizabeth Daye, but this is not fully proven either.