Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:29:28 -0330 (NST)
From: David Pike 
To: pike-dna-l@rootsweb.com
Subject: [PIKE-DNA] St Lawrence, Newfoundland



Hi everybody.

This update focusses on two new results, both pertaining to the community 
of St Lawrence on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland.  I'll begin with 
some history though to help give some background.  To start with, the Pike 
surname is a touch common here in Newfoundland, where it was the 22nd most 
frequently occurring surname in the 1955 voters list.  The earliest 
records of Pikes that I know of in Newfoundland date back to the 1600s.

Regarding St Lawrence and the Burin Peninsula though, the earliest church 
records for the area don't begin until the 1800s, with Methodist records 
starting in 1816, Catholic in 1833, and Anglican about 1847.  The earliest 
Pike references in these records are dated 1835 with several couples named 
Pique (which was spelled as Pike in later entries) appearing in the 
Catholic records, namely:

    - William & Jane Pique
    - James & Ann Pique
    - Robert & Margret Piq
    - Thomas & Ann Pique [they appear in 1836]

and two couples recorded in 1835 in the Methodist records:

    - John & Catherine Pike
    - Robert & Amelia Pike

Note, however, that John & Catherine show up in an 1827 baptism that was 
recorded elsewhere in Harbour Grace when a clergyman based in Harbour 
Grace returned to his station after having travelled to the south coast.

The origins of these Pike families, and whether or not they're related to 
each other, or to the numerous Pike families on the east coast of 
Newfoundland, have been matters of much speculation.  Not until now have 
we had any DNA results from Newfoundland's south coast to talk about 
though. And as you'll read shortly, there is still ample room for 
discussion.

In the past while we have received results from the lab for both Levi Pike 
(kit 61279) and Wayne McNutt (kit 131347).  I should quickly point out 
that although Wayne doesn't carry the Pike surname, his father was a Pike 
prior to being adopted and undergoing a name change to McNutt.  Moreover, 
based on available records, Levi and Wayne have established a paper-trail 
connection between them that shows that they are second cousins, once 
removed.

It was therefore a bit of a surprise when the lab reported that Levi and 
Wayne were not a genetic match with each other.  Looking at 25 markers, 
they have 13 differences between them.  This poses something of a mystery, 
as it is telling us that either somebody has made a mistake in tracing 
their genealogy or perhaps we're dealing with a case of "mis-attributed 
paternity", which in essence means that somebody's father isn't who we 
thought he was (such as by virtue of an unreported adoption or an 
illegitimate son of an unwed woman being raised by other family members as 
their own child) and so the paper-trail and the biological-trail are in 
disagreement with one another.  This is not an uncommon occurrence, and it 
provides a fun opportunity to see if we can unravel the mystery.

A confounding factor that might be interfering with the genealogical 
research in this situation is that several of the local church registers 
are not generally available.  For instance, copies of Anglican baptisms 
for the period 1847-1860, marriages for 1847-1880, and all burial records 
are unavailable at the provincial archives, but rather are still held in 
the parish.  Although we're confident that Wayne and Levi's ancestors were 
protestant, it also warrants mention that we have incomplete Catholic 
records to work with as well:  although records from nearby Burin are 
available, a separate parish for St Lawrence was begun in 1849 and these 
records are similarly held in the parish without having been copied for 
the provincial archives.  Suffice it to say that with incomplete data, 
there is ample opportunity to have made a genealogical error.

We're all collectively wishing that these records would be made more 
widely available.  In the meantime though, it would appear that St 
Lawrence might be home to at least two Pike families that we're now having 
difficulty telling apart on paper.  The good news is that we may be able 
to tell them apart with DNA, and in this regard we're now hoping that more 
Pikes from St Lawrence and elsewhere on the Burin Peninsula will come 
forward and test their DNA so that we can gain more insight into the Pike 
families of the area and how/if they are related to one another.

One other thing that can be said right now though is that neither Levi nor 
Wayne matched with any other Pikes in our project either.  And in 
particular, they do not share the genetic profile for the cluster of Pikes 
on the east coast of Newfoundland.  So unless the results are being skewed 
by adoptions or other similar situations, then it would appear that we can 
conclude the island of Newfoundland is home to multiple unrelated Pike 
families.  On this note let me return to my introductory comments about 
the earliest known Pikes in Newfoundland.  On the east coast, the earliest 
reference that I know about is for a Thomas Pike who was present in 
Carbonear in 1681.  On the south coast however, there was an Englishman 
recorded as Thomas Pic/Picq/Picque in 15th century census records from the 
French colony of Plaisance, some of which note that he had been living 
there since 1661.  Tracking the descendants of either of these two 
Thomases may be next to impossible, but it's tempting to conjecture that 
they might have given rise to two of the families that we're now finding 
the genetic profiles for.

- David.