I saw a picture and caption on tumblr, the blog site, and had to check it out. Sure enough, have your browser find NRA Museums and click on "Guns" (top left) and pull down to "Galleries." Go right and select "Ancient Firearms." Right in the middle of the page, under "Significant Firearms in Gallery 2" is an entry marked "Mayflower Gun." There are 2 online videos about the gun. The museum curator does claim in the longer video that this Italian Wheelock Carbine was the personal gun of pilgrim John Alden and that he brought it with him in 1620. The basis for the claim appears to be that it was found in a "secret compartment" near the front door - still loaded - in the Alden house in Duxbury, MA in 1924. The Museum video says that the house was built in 1653, but some research pushes that date forward 30-40 years, with the Aldens simply reusing the timber from their previous home. The 17th century house was occupied by Alden descendants until it was bought in 1907 by Alden Kindred of America. Their web site has a history of the house, including a detailed PDF you can download, here.  Also, the NRA curator claims that John listed this gun specifically in his will. According to the GSMD's Alden silver book, part one, pp. 11-12, John Alden actually left no will. Citing a transcription of the probate documents, printed in the Mayflower Descendant (1910) 3: 10-11, which in turn cited Plymouth County Probate Records 1: 10, 16, there was an inventory taken of his possessions. It included "2 old guns."
This may well be pilgrim John's personal weapon but to prove it I would like to see some discussion of scientific testing done to the gun, rather than a discussion only of the gun's provenance. I am sure it was owned by an Alden, probably a John Alden since there were lots of them, and I am sure it was used a lot. Whether it came over on the Mayflower in 1620 with a young cooper depends on proof of its construction before that date.

I worked the AZ Presidential Preference Election Tuesday (which is not the same thing as a primary) and we were mobbed. It was 17 hours with 1 bathroom break, 1 half sandwich eaten, and nonstop voters. They were extremely nice and polite and patient, waiting for hours. Two-and-a-half hours was the longest wait reported to me by a voter. The computer system and/or the bandwidth had trouble keeping up, which added to the amount of time it took for the process. Election workers love voters and were so glad they took the time to stick with the process or to fill out their Early Ballot and bring it in.

If you like sharing your photos (and your family is ok with you posting the images online, because that's their relative, too) check out Dead Fred. Likewise, if you want to try the strategy of digging for genealogical data by finding others researching your relatives, Dead Fred might be for you.
Specifically, if you are looking for more info on someone from roughly the 1840s to recent times, this would be one way to see who else is out there AND is close enough to your family that they have the photos you don't, and possibly other useful things like old family Bibles or letters home from some war or another.
For example, someone wrote a book about the town where my paternal ancestors lived and there was great-great-granddad's photo, right on the front page! The only reason anyone knew it was him was that they happened to look through the book and ran across his name. None of us knew what he looked like. The photo credit stated who owned this photo and I had never heard of them. I contacted the author to help put me in touch but never heard back. If this were my own photo I could post it on Dead Fred and ask if anyone else has info on this person. Once you find one such person they might be able to identify some of the mystery people in your collection - you know, those pictures that no one ever labeled and now everyone who COULD have labeled them is pushing up daisies. You can use Dead Fred for free or take the membership option, which has a few more features, for under $20.

I got a copy of  Maureen A. Taylor's Family Photo Detective (Cincinnati: Family Tree Books, 2013) thanks to Interlibrary Loan, wanting advice on a couple of the very few family photos I have. Not being a fashion person myself I did not understand much of what she was saying about garments and accessories. The book gives a lot of sources but most were books I would then have to fill out an interlibrary loan request and wait for, hoping my library could get a copy. Not being that patient, I went to google.com, which I do not normally use, and entered the particular fashion item I was curious about. In one case, I had what I had been told was a mother-daughter photo, but there was some debate over whether it was my great grandmother and her mom, or that mom and HER mother. The woman's fashion was indeterminate, to me, but the little girl was wearing an off-the-shoulder dress. What kind of Victorian mother would cover herself thoroughly but dress her little girl like a trollop? Well, apparently mothers from the 1840s through the Civil War (1860-65) did. That tells me that the original identification I had of the mother-daughter combo was correct, and the photo was taken circa 1851. I happen to have a photo of one of the mother's brothers, and there is a family resemblance. Google found me this info about little girls in off-the-shoulder dresses on Pinterest.com. I don't know much more about Pinterest than what I have just told you, but you might give them a shot for your antique fashion mysteries.

Remember that 2016 New Year's resolution to join a lineage society? If you are a descendant of pilgrim Peter Brown/Browne, or think you are, or just like Mayflower history, a new group was formed at the 2014 Triennial (conference) at Plymouth, MA to focus on Peter Brown. The web address is http://www.pilgrimpeterbrownsociety.org/ and there is a bio of Peter, an issue of the latest newsletter, contact info, photos (not of Peter), a link to his inventory of belongings (and debts) after his death, PPBS officer contact info, and of course, an application form. There are actually 2 application forms, one for applicants who are not descendants documented and approved by the GSMD General Historian, and one for those who are. (The PPBS is an example of a rare instance in which you CAN use one society's lineage paper to gain entry to another.) This is also a lifetime-fee, organization, in this instance $150. This is equal to about 3-5 years of dues for a typical lineage group. The point is to save on overhead costs and not wear out the volunteer staff sending out dues notices each year, and so on. Think of it also as channeling your dues money to promote Mayflower history. The stated goal of the group includes sponsoring research on the history and genealogy of Peter Brown and his family (presumably including both wives, Martha (---) Ford and Mary (---). It may include his brother John Brown, who came to Plymouth later. If you have been frustrated proving a link to Peter, maybe you are one of John's descendants. There is no record of Peter in the Leyden congregation but he is said to have known the Mullins family. How? Is that link the reason he named a daughter Priscilla? And how did he wind up on the Mayflower?
Peter Brown/Browne left three daughters who survived to adulthood and two of them are known to have had children. One married a man named Snow, but there were other Snows in Plymouth Colony in the 1600s. However, the other married a man named Ephraim Tinkham (also spelled Tincum, Tincomb, etc.) If you have an ancestor named Tinkham in Plymouth County during the colonial period, look for a link to pilgrim Peter Brown.