Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 12:02:33 -0330 (NST)
From: David Pike 
To: PIKE-DNA-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: [PIKE-DNA] Direct Female Pike Ancestry 



Hi everybody.

I sent this out to the PIKE-L list the other day and thought I
should also send it to the PIKE-DNA-L list for the benefit of folks
who don't subscribe to both.

- David.



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:17:56 -0330 (NST)
From: David Pike 
Reply-To: PIKE-L@rootsweb.com
To: PIKE-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: [PIKE] Direct Female Pike Ancestry
Resent-Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 11:48:09 -0700
Resent-From: PIKE-L@rootsweb.com


Hi all.

Several readers of this list will be familiar with my efforts to
collect records of Pike baptisms, marriages, burials, etc, from
throughout Newfoundland.  Still others will recognise me from my
role as the coordinator for the Pike DNA Project, which has been
using DNA from male Pike's to help track and compare paternal Pike
lines.  Links to the project's website and my Newfoundland data
can both be found online at:

   http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history

Those who might not be familiar with using genetic testing as a
genealogical aid might find it useful to also read the "Gentle
Introduction to Genetic Genealogy" that I wrote a few months ago:

   http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/GIGG/gigg.html

Last weekend I went to a Genetic Genealogy Conference in Washington DC.
In addition to attending several presentations on how genetic testing
can help with genealogy, I also had the opportunity to chat with several
other project administrators.  Most projects are using nothing but
male Y-DNA testing (because men inherit their Y-chromosome almost always
from the same man from which they inherit their surname).  However, there
is another type of DNA that can sometimes help with genealogy.

This other type of DNA is mitochondrial DNA (abbreviated "mtDNA") and
is passed from a mother to each of her children.  Because mtDNA follows
maternal lines, we cannot associate a particular mtDNA genetic signature
with a certain surname for any longer than one generation at a time.
At first glance it is not clear how this might help with Pike genealogical
research, but here's a hypothetical example to consider:

Suppose that in Mary's family tree she has ancestors Adam & Eve Pike,
but that Adam & Eve's parents are not known.  By doing Y-DNA testing
on Adam's direct male descendants, we learn something about Adam and his
paternal line.  However, by doing mtDNA testing on Eve's direct female
descendants, we may learn something about Eve and her maternal line.
Genetic matches with other people that share Eve's mtDNA signature might
help to identify other relatives of Eve, which might also help to shed
some light on her origins.  New discoveries about Eve could in turn lead
to a genealogical breakthrough regarding the couple Adam & Eve, thereby
furthering Pike genealogy.  If Mary is a direct female descendant of Eve
(i.e. Eve is Mary's mother's mother's ... mother's mother), then Mary
would have inherited her mtDNA from Eve, and so Mary is an ideal
candidate to help contribute towards learning about Adam & Eve by
undergoing a mtDNA test.

So what I want to do now is to explicitly extend a welcome message to
anybody whose direct maternal ancestor is a female Pike to join the Pike
DNA Project and get their direct female Pike ancestor's mtDNA genetic
signature determined.  As noted above, the hope is that this will
eventually lead to some Pike genealogical advances.  On the Pike DNA
Project's website, I have set up a page that is entirely devoted to
mtDNA:

   http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=mtDNAresults.html

If you have Pike ancestry, but your line of descent from your Pike
ancestors is not "all female" then you would unfortunately not be a
good candidate for mtDNA testing (because your mtDNA would have come
from your direct "all female" line).  Similarly, with Y-DNA testing,
DNA samples need to come from men whose direct "all male" line goes
back to Pike ancestors (which usually means that the Y-DNA providers
still have the Pike surname).  If you're not a good candidate for
getting tested yourself but are still interested in getting your
ancestors represented, then you should look for cousins in your
family tree that would be suitable candidates.

One question that I might pose to help spur some genealogical work
in this regard is:  To the best of my knowledge, the first Pike's in
North America were John Pike and his children, who landed in
Massachusetts in 1635.  John and his wife Dorothy Day had 5 children:
2 sons John and Robert, and 3 daughters Dorothy, Ann, and Israel.
Does anybody out there know of any direct female descendants of these
daughters?  This might be a bit of a challenge, since this will likely
require that somebody has traced their female ancestry back about 15
generations (and through a corresponding number of about 15 surnames
along the direct female line).

- David.