I know of thirteen lines of descent from Stephen Hopkins down to me.   I don't know how unusual it is to have this many known descents from any person 13 or 14 generations earlier.  (I know of nine descents from William Nickerson, one of the first European settlors of Chatham, Massachusetts.)   It must be in part the result of many generations of Hopkins descendants remaining on Cape Cod, a narrow peninsula offering more than usually limited social opportunities, and marrying, quite unintentionally and probably often unknowingly, other Hopkins descendants.  Stephen Hopkins led a fascinating life.  In 1609 he left England on the Sea Venture, bound for Jamestown.  The Sea Venture was destroyed in a hurricane just off Bermuda, where the passengers landed and remained for several months.  While at Bermuda, Hopkins was nearly executed for trying to organize a mutiny, but he begged for and was granted mercy, citing his wife and young children back in England.  In 1610 the castaways were able to build a new vessel and continue their voyage to Jamestown.  Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, is believed to be based upon the story of the Sea Venture castaways at Bermuda.  Hopkins returned to England in 1614 and then sailed to Plymouth in 1620 on the Mayflower.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hopkins_(Mayflower_passenger)