What does Margie Leo of Butler have in common with Hugh Hefner and Clint Eastwood?

All three are proven descendents of William Bradford. Bradford and 101 other Mayflower passengers survived an arduous transatlantic voyage and a harsh winter to establish the first colony in New England in 1620. Bradford became the second governor of that colony.

Bradford also wrote the most comprehensive account of life among the pilgrims in his journal, “Of Plimoth Plantation.”

“I felt like I had just hit the lottery,” said Leo of her luck in discovering she was related to Bradford through her mother’s ancestral line.

Of the Mayflower pilgrims, only 24 males produced children who would carry on their names — and half of the ship’s passengers didn’t survive the first winter. Yet more than 35 million Americans claim to be ancestors of the first pilgrims.

Only about 500 are members of The Gov. William Bradford Compact, a group of Bradford descendants committed to honoring his legacy. Leo is among them.

In February of 1976, Leo began to explore her father’s branch of the family tree where her aunt had left off. Her pursuits led her to proof that won her and other family members admission into the Daughters of the American Revolution, an association of women whose ancestors took part in achieving America’s independence.Soon after, Leo was accepted to nearly half a dozen other ancestral societies through her father’s line.But when she decided to even things up and start researching her mother’s line, Leo hit the jackpot: a connection to Bradford, among the most notable Mayflower survivors.It was her mother’s link to Bradford’s second wife, Alice Carpenter, who came to Plymouth on the Ann in 1623, that connected Leo to the highly esteemed author of the Mayflower Compact, a document that promised the pilgrims’ loyalty to their new leaders.Bradford and Carpenter’s grandson, Joseph Bradford, began the roots from which Leo’s mother’s tree grows.Despite Leo’s finding, acquiring the required proof to gain admittance into the Society of Mayflower Descendents in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was not easy.To qualify for admission, applicants must document marriages, births and deaths for all ancestors who form the link to a pilgrim.Some applicants have had to scramble to find those proofs for 15 generations. Leo had to put her hands on documents for 11 generations to join SMDPA.

“It’s like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle,” Leo said of the delicate yellowed letters, tintypes, sienna-colored photographs, family Bibles and various books and documents used to trace her family’s past.Leo was at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints library in Pittsburgh when she typed in the name of her great- grandmother Betsy Mariah Van Anden’s brother, Louis, and found he went back six or eight generations on the Foote line, which traces to the American Revolution.After joining the Colonial Dames of the 17th Century on the Foote line, Leo began researching the wives in that genealogical line and discovered her great-grandmother’s line went back to Carpenter.“I was lucky that she descended from six males … they always dropped the female lines because they made the volumes too thick,” said Leon.“Don’t forget the women,” she advises those trying to find links to Mayflower passengers. “Most men had several wives, especially those who came across on the Mayflower. When you think you’re done, look for another wife.”Those who can’t prove descent to a Mayflower passenger may connect to colonists who came on subsequent ships and then join the National Society of Descendents of the Pilgrims.Since her discovery, Leo has also joined Dames of the Court of Honors, National Society of Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, Hereditary Order of Descendents of Colonial Governors, The Bradford Compact, National Society of Descendents of the Mayflower, National Gavel Society and Descendents of Colonial Clergy.“I join on different ancestors to prove that my research is valid,” said Leo, whose application for each one is carefully scrutinized.

Since Leo began her quest to discover her roots, advanced research techniques, improved genealogy library collections and computerized resources have made it easier.Pat Collins, president of the Butler County Genealogical Society, said genealogical research can start online with www.VitalRec.com, a free site; www.Ancestry.com, a paid site; or the www.USGenWeb.com pages, available for every county in the country.“I coordinate the Butler records. You can start looking online in the county to see if the records exist, but for proof you really are looking at documents,” said Collins.“It is difficult since Pennsylvania did not mandate birth and death records until 1893. Very few records are available except for church records, census records and old family Bibles,” she said.And Collins does not buy all documented proof. “There are too many ways to falsify this stuff. Anyone can make a Bible page by using three different signatures,” she said.But finding key records was not so hard for Pat Hill of Cabot, a board member of the SMDPA. She traced her line to pilgrim Edward Fuller. He, his wife and young son were passengers on the Mayflower.“They (the records) were all there in the courthouse waiting for me,” said Hill, who began researching her roots in the late 1970s. Like Collins, Hill also suggested a good place to start is with county history books, kept in libraries.“Farmers always owned land, so if it is a farmer you’re looking for, check for deeds.”To begin researching one of the Mayflower families, Hill recommends the “silver books,” a collection of 31 volumes called “Mayflower Families Through Five Generations.”Each volume contains the first five generations of one passenger’s family. The Butler Public Library, which Collins said is “one of the best genealogical libraries around,” contains the silver books. A lot of people come to Butler to do their research, she added.

Their research behind them, Hill and Leo will join other members of the Western Colony of the SMDPA this weekend at Station Square in Pittsburgh for their annual Thanksgiving dinner. That is where they commemorate their ancestors who began the tradition.But Hill said that for her family, Thanksgiving has always been a big day — as big as Christmas.“When my first granddaughter was little I gave her a doll every Thanksgiving Day. … I wanted her to know that Thanksgiving was important.”Hill and Leo may attend as many as eight regional and state meetings a year for SMDPA, some in Philadelphia. Both women are active in other ancestral societies as well.“Everybody thinks we just have tea and wear our white gloves. We take our white gloves, but we get in the trenches and work, too,” said Leon.For instance, the societies help to fund education, provide scholarships for history students, volunteer at veterans hospitals, collect hotel soaps and phone cards for troops overseas and provide funding for remote schools.Leo is passing the tradition of honoring her forefathers on to her children, who have already joined Children of the American Revolution.

“How lucky we are to have discovered that we do descend from someone who was strong enough in his belief to make a decision and stand by it, let alone William Bradford!” said Leo.With the unrest in the world today she said things can change, but 10 or 11 generations later, her belief in God, home and country has not.“We are just so fortunate to be living in a country where we are able to be free to travel or stay at home, worship as we please, and hopefully not to forget the first Thanksgiving,” she said.