Welcome to This Site

Welcome to this new site for the descendants of Francis and Susannah (Soule) West of Plymouth and Rhode Island colonies.

First, a little background on myself. My name is Nathan West and I reside in Lake George in Upstate New York. My family (the Wests) have been in the Washington, Essex, and Warren Counties of New York since the late 1790's, including founding the Essex County town of Minerva. My own line left Minerva in the 1850's for western Rutland County in Vermont. About 10 years ago my uncle and I made the connection to the Minerva Wests and in turn found further genealogical roots into early Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. At this time we were able to document our family going back twelve generations to Francis West and his wife Susannah Soule, the daughter of Mayflower Pilgrim George Soule.

In July 2006 I was contacted by Mrs. Louise W. Throop of California (a prominent historian who has written extensively for the General Society of Mayflower Descendants) who encouraged me to share my family records and take a DNA test from FamilyTreeDNA.com to prove my direct ancestry from Francis and Susannah. In August 2006 the results came back positive and I subsequently enrolled in the West Family DNA Project.