Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 18:45:55 -0230 (NDT)
From: David Pike 
To: pike-dna-l@rootsweb.com
Subject: Two results



Hi everybody.

Although I have a list of several results to discuss, in this message I 
will limit myself to just two of them.  But before discussing these two 
results, I've been asked to let you know that several members of our 
project's "Group 6" will be in Boston on May 4th and 5th, to visit the New 
England Historic Genealogical Society and conduct research that will 
hopefully shed new light on the origins of Group 6 and its patriarch James 
Pike.  If you live in the Boston region, and would like to join in please 
email Stu Pike at cocostu@spamex.com




The first result that I want to mention in this update is for Michael (kit 
208808), whose results were previously mentioned back in December.  You 
can read what was said then here: 
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/PIKE-DNA/2011-12/1322837353

To quickly summarise though, he tested 67 markers and had no close Pike 
matches, which eliminated the possibility of what at first glance appeared 
like a potential case of incest.  The mystery regarding just who the 
father of Michael's grandfather John Prichard PYKE might have been 
remained unsettled, but the possibility that it might have been a John 
Edward PRITCHARD whose death was registered in 1898 remained to be fully 
explored.

Michael subsequently obtained the death certificate for John Edward 
PRITCHARD, which noted that he died in hospital of tuberculosis.  He was 
aged 24 and was a "carpenter (journeyman)". In attendance was E. T. 
PRITCHARD, of The Post Office, Glasbury, Breconshire, Wales.

It was quickly thereafter that Edward Thomas Pritchard and his family were 
found in census records from Glasbury.  They show that Edward and his wife 
Sarah had several children, including a son John Edward who was listed as 
a 17-year-old carpenter in the 1891 census.

This was all very promising, but the question remained:  was this fellow 
the father of Michael's grandfather John Pritchard PYKE?

As luck would have it, Michael began to research the descendants of Edward 
and Sarah PRITCHARD, and made contact with a great grand-daughter Carla of 
Edward and Sarah's son Ernest.  A DNA test was arranged for Carla's 
father, and when his 67-marker results came in, the answer was clear. 
Michael and Carla's father match on 66 out of 67 markers, and the one 
marker on which they differ is notoriously prone to mutate.  If this 
wasn't enough on its own, when exchanging family details, Carla and 
Michael discovered that both families have inherited copies of one 
particular photograph, of a woman and a young child, who have now been 
identified as being Michael's grandfather John Pritchard PYKE and his 
mother Fanny PYKE.




The other result that I want to highlight today is for Desmond (kit 
220758). He tested 37 markers and has near-matches that score 36/37 with 
members of our project's "Group 2" from Carbonear, Newfoundland.  This was 
the desired outcome, since Desmond's Pike ancestry has roots in Carbonear, 
but his line is one of several from Carbonear that had not yet been DNA 
tested.

Moreover, there were some questions and uncertainties regarding Desmond's 
Pike lineage.  The headstone for Desmond's grandfather Reuben says that he 
was born on 10 January 1910. Reuben's father Alfred died at sea in 1914, 
and in the 1921 census of Newfoundland we find Reuben listed with an aunt 
and uncle.

The questions that arise stem from the lack of an obvious birth record for 
Reuben, as well as there being no apparent marriage record for his 
parents.

After some diligent searching, my suspicion is that Reuben's birth was 
actually recorded, but with some errors that are very misleading. 
Specifically, the civil registration records from Carbonear show that a 
child named Reuben Alfred was born on 16 January 1910 to parents Alfred 
and Mary A BUTT.  My suspicion is that the surname for this entry should 
actually be PIKE. Trying to correct such a mistake after more than 100 
years have passed is a bit of a challenge, but with Desmond's DNA clearly 
matching with other Pikes from Carbonear, I think that we're on the right 
track now.

Despite the absence of a marriage record for Reuben's father Alfred, we 
can pick up the family's trail thanks to some details that we have 
regarding Reuben's uncle Frederick.  In so doing we can determine that 
Alfred and Frederick are sons of Edward Frederick PIKE and Julia Ann 
POWER, and that Edward Frederick's parents were named Alfred and Mary 
PIKE.  But like nearly all of the Pike families from Carbonear, we then 
get genealogically stuck in the early 1800s.

Research is ongoing to try to make the connection to Pikes who lived at 
Poole in Dorset a century earlier.


- David.