To: pike-dna-l@rootsweb.com
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:25:20 -0230 (NDT)
From: dapike@math.mun.ca (David Pike)
Subject: [PIKE-DNA] An update on recent news


Hi everybody.

This email bulletin describes a few recent developments with
our project.

The first one that I want to share involves Keith (kit 80666) and
Sara & Marvin (61285), who together form our project's "Group 8" clan
as shown at:
http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=results.html

Previously Keith had tested 67 markers but we only had 25 for Marvin.
Despite being a perfect 25-marker match, the genealogical connection
between them was not known.  Since then Marvin's results have been
refined to the full 67 marker level as well, and with astonishing
result:  not only do Keith and Marvin match perfectly at the 37-marker
level, but they are also a perfect 67-marker match!  These are the first
perfect matches we've seen in our project beyond the 25-marker level.

We still do not know what the genealogical connection is between Keith
and Marvin, but their genetic closeness suggests that it is likely
relatively recent.  A statistical tool that FamilyTreeDNA provides
suggests that the likelihood of a connection within the past 8 generations
is about 98%.

Carrie Olson, who has done a lot of work in tracing Marvin's line
back to Adair County, Kentucky in the early 1800s, is now exploring
a few hypotheses regarding the connection to Keith.  These focus on
Pike lines that we do not yet have DNA results for (well, not that
we know of) such as:

- the family of John W PIKE and Jane COTNEY who were married about
  1788 in Edgefield, South Carolina.  Their son William's family
  is discussed in the 520-page book "William T. Pike, 1799-1882 :
  South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Westward" written in 1996
  by John Emory Pike (now deceased).

- the family of a William Pike born about 1738, who arrived in the
  USA on board the ship "Ruby".  This family appears to have first
  settled in New Hampshire and later migrated to South Carolina.
  This might be the same Pike clan as that of John W Pike above.

- the family of Samuel Pike who settled at Pasquotank County,
  North Carolina in the 1680s or 1690s.

Meanwhile, we've had a few developments with Pike lines that are
known to hail from England.  Alan (kit 27712) joined our project back
in 2004, but until recently an email glitch blocked communication between
the two of us.  This was recently resolved, so I was able to contact him
and obtain consent to discuss the details of his Pike ancestry (none of
which I knew previously).  As it happens, Alan lives in Wales, but his Pike
line goes back to the parish of Ilchester, Somerset, where Alan's ancestor
Richard Pike lived.  As it happens, Richard truly is the patriarch for
Alan's Pike line, as Richard took his surname from his mother Mary Pike.
Accordingly, any more Pikes who join our project and match genetically with
Alan will likely have the benefit of only having to focus on one Pike family
tree, commencing in 1774, to figure out where they genealogically fit in.

Currently Alan's is the only Pike line we have in our project with
specifically known roots in Somerset.  A corresponding pushpin has
now been added to our British Isles map at
http://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=results.html

Likewise, we also have a newly coloured pushpin located in London,
for Linda (kit 82804).  We can't yet say much about Linda's Pike ancestry
though.  The DNA results (from Linda's brother's DNA) don't yet match
anybody in our project.  And genealogically speaking, the identity of
Linda's grandparents isn't known either.

There is one more recent result to briefly mention, for Kevin (67713).
His DNA results revealed that he's in haplogroup "I", but his particular
markers mean that he also does not yet match anybody in our project.
So the tally of genetically different Pike lines in our project is now up
to 28 (and for those that we can trace back to the United Kingdom, it's
up to 9).

And speaking of the United Kingdom, I will be going there next week.
Specifically I will be attending a mathematics conference in Reading for
a week and then I will be spending some time in Somerset and Dorset.
My access to the internet might be limited while I'm travelling, so
please be patient if I don't reply to emails as promptly as usual.

- David.