Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 14:06:18 -0230 (NDT)
From: David Pike 
To: pike-dna-l@rootsweb.com
Subject: A Puzzle with Groups 7 and 8



Hi everybody.

The first part of this message is based on two new results that fit into 
Groups 7 and 8, but which have presented us with a bit of a puzzle.  If 
there's a lesson in all this, I think it is that DNA testing can help to 
uncover errors and false assumptions that might have been made when 
compiling family trees.

The two new results that are involved are for Nolan (kit 198106) and 
Edward (200742).

Nolan tested 67 markers and his results are a strong match with the three 
other members of our project's Group 7.  Indeed, Nolan is a first cousin, 
once removed, of Jim (140707) who had previously tested 37 markers and was 
placed into Group 7.

Edward tested 37 markers and is a perfect 37-marker match with several of 
the members of our project's Group 8.

Where the twist comes in to this picture is that on paper Nolan, Jim and 
Edward all appeared to descend from the same Pike ancestor.  But the 
differences between Edward's Y-DNA and that of Jim and Nolan clearly 
indicate that they do not share the same paternal ancestry.

To elaborate a bit, Edward's 2xGreat grandfather was a John J Pike who was 
born about 1798 in North Carolina.  He married Nancy Jackson Hall and 
ended up living in Georgia, where he died in 1837.

Jim and Nolan both descend from a John Pike who was born about 1795 in 
North Carolina.  He married Rachel Fowler and ended up living in Alabama, 
where he died sometime between 1850 and 1860.  John and Rachel are known 
to have had children named Leah, Joseph M, John West, Bailes M, and 
Commodore.

The problem that we've encountered is that it appears that these two John 
Pikes, both born in North Carolina in the 1790s, have been described as 
being sons of Lewis Pike junior and his wife Mary Berry.  Lewis was born 
about 1770 at Caswell County, North Carolina.  There are disputing 
statements about his death:  either he died at St. Augustine, Florida in 
1811, or Greenville County, South Carolina about 1819.

What I suspect has happened is that one of the John Pikes is indeed a son 
of Lewis, and that the other John has been mistakenly identified as being 
Lewis' son.  At first glance though, it isn't immediately clear just which 
John is a son of Lewis.

From a DNA perspective, the obvious solution would be to test the DNA of 
somebody who descends from one of Lewis' other sons (or one of his 
nephews, etc).  But we're not yet aware of any such candidates who we 
could approach for testing, so for now we have to try to reconcile the 
situation based on historical records.  Here I have to extend thanks to 
Carrie Olson for researching a bunch of stuff and for bringing the 
following detail to my attention... the 1860 USA census lists the 
following men in Tallokas, Brooks County, Georgia:

Enoch H. Pike  age 23 (b. abt. 1837)
John J. Pike   age 31 (b. abt. 1829)
Lewis Pike     age 28 (b. abt. 1832)

Enoch above is an ancestor of Edward in our DNA project.  Indeed, this 
Enoch is a son of John J Pike and his wife Nancy Jackson Hall, and so I 
suspect that the Lewis and John J listed above are also sons of John J & 
Nancy.

But more than that, I think that it is telling that the name Lewis appears 
here.  This in turn leads me to think that this is the family that 
descends from Lewis Pike and Mary Berry, in which case we now have another 
clue regarding the origins of our project's Group 8.  Edward's research 
into his ancestry suggests that Lewis' father was Lewis John Pike senior, 
born about 1747 in Massachusetts.

There has been a tradition that we've attributed to Group 8, of there 
being a New England connection in the family.  In particular, a William 
Pike who settled at Edgefield, South Carolina is suspected to have arrived 
there in 1754 on board the ship "Ruby" after having previously resided in 
New Hampshire.  Evidence to support this tradition has been slow to come 
forward, but perhaps researching Lewis will shed some more light on this 
story.

As for Jim and Nolan though, their lineage now stops two generations 
shorter than we previously thought had been determined.  That is, their 
known ancestry now only goes back to their John Pike (as opposed to Lewis 
Pike senior who had been thought to be John's grandfather).  One irony 
here though is that in this case we know that there is a New England 
connection, since Drake (kit 70672) also belongs to Jim and Nolan's Group 
7, and Drake has been able to trace his lineage back to a Philip Pike who 
arrived at Kittery, Maine in the very early 1700s.  But this doesn't yet 
help with Jim and Nolan's ancestor John.  So if anybody out there has any 
clues that might help to identify the parents of their John Pike, please 
share what information you can.




The other item that I want to say a few words about is that our project is 
launching a fund-raising effort to help build up our sponsorship fund. 
This fund which Stu and I administer, but is otherwise held by FTDNA, is 
used only to recruit new members by providing them a subsidy when they 
first get tested.  Part of what is motivating this fund-raising drive is 
that we have been contacted by a benefactor who has pledged to donate up 
to $250 to our project's fund, subject to two conditions.  The first is 
that she/he remain anonymous.  The other is that her/his donation is to be 
in the form of a dollar-for-dollar match of other people's donations.  So 
if just fifty of us were to each donate $5, then we would be able to 
double our total collection and receive the full $250 that this donor has 
pledged.  Making an online donation is easy... just go to this webpage at 
Family Tree DNA:
   http://www.familytreedna.com/group-general-fund-contribution.aspx
and then select the letter "P" followed by the "Pike" name and enter the 
details of your contribution.  The deadline for donations that this 
benefactor has agreed to match is Father's Day, June 19 2011.  Stu and I 
will monitor the situation and provide a report to everybody afterwards.


Thanks,

- David.