Date: Wed,  1 Feb 2006 21:47:53 -0330 (NST)
From: dapike@math.mun.ca (David Pike)
To: PIKE-DNA-L@rootsweb.com
Subject: A Short Update

Hi everybody.

I've been meaning to send out an email message for a little while now
but haven't really had the chance to do so.  Today a blizzard kept
me home from work and gave me a chance to get a bit caught up.

Anyway, there have been a number of small but interesting developments
with our DNA project lately.  Most exciting is that we've had several
new members join lately, so that we can look forward to at least a
half dozen new test results in the coming weeks (as well as a couple
of refinements to previously reported 12-marker results).  Included
among the new project members is one who has traced his Pike ancestry back
to Hampshire in England.

The most recent set of test results came out on January 19th, and were
for a Pyke first cousin of Faye Simpson.  Faye's cousin had all 37 markers
tested, which will be very helpful given that his first 12 markers are an
exact match for the very common "Western/Atlantic Modal Haplotype"... so
common in fact that the FamilyTreeDNA database has over 600 people with
these same 12 marker values.  Even at 25 markers there are a number of
close genetic matches.  Only when looking at all 37 markers do we obtain
a genetic signature that is hopefully specific just to Faye's Pyke family
(which hails from an Abraham Pyke of Baltimore) and their Pyke relatives.

I might also briefly mention that just over a week ago I gave a presentation
about "Genetic Genealogy" to my local family history society.  There was a
large audience, and it was clear that there was lots of interest in the topic.
I mentioned some of what we've learned so far with our Pike project, and I
showed a partial family tree for the descendants of John Pike who settled
in Massachusetts in 1635 ... this same tree now appears on the project's
"Results" page at

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

and shows how the participants in "Group 1" are related to each other,
as well as to Zebulon Montgomery Pike.

As I said, there are several new test results expected in the next
few weeks, so I hope to have more news to report soon.

- David.