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.
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