Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2019 12:48:54 -0230 (NDT)
From: David Pike 
To: pike-dna-l@rootsweb.com
Subject: Pike DNA Project News



Hi everybody.

In this lengthy email bulletin I have a lot of catching up to do regarding 
progress with our DNA project. There are currently a number of BigY tests 
and upgrades in progress, which I will write about at a future date.  In 
this message though I will focus on the more traditional 37, 67, and 111 
STR markers that have been newly reported since around June of last year. 
There are thirteen of these, all but one of which fit into one of our 
project's numbered "Groups" of genetic Pike clusters.



Before I get to these DNA results though, let me comment that in response 
to the flurry of activity that occurred on our mailing list a few weeks 
ago and which generated a number of messages of displeasure, I've made 
some configuration changes that should result in all emails to the mailing 
list being held and/or rejected, essentially limiting our mailing list to 
the distribution of project updates such as this email message.

However, it is helpful for people to be able to correspond with one 
another, to ask for guidance and assistance with tracing their Pike 
ancestry, for people to share their expertise, etc.  On that note let me 
point out that our project has an "Activity Feed" on the Family Tree DNA 
website, where conversations of this nature can be publicly conducted. A 
direct link to this activity feed is here: 
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/pike/activity-feed

The activity feed previously had been used to share coupon codes that had 
been issued during various promotions, which I think is a great sign of 
our willingness to cooperate and help one another.  However, as those 
coupons have long since expired, I've removed their posts from the 
activity feed so that what remains doesn't look like it is cluttered with 
them.



Okay, now on to the Y-STR DNA results that we have received over the past 
twelve months. Instead of reviewing them in chronological order, they will 
be arranged on the basis of which of our project's genetic clusters they 
fit into, namely our Group 1, Group 2, etc., as shown on our public 
webpage for results at 
https://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=results.html



Group 1:

Within Group 1, which is by far our project's largest genetic group, we 
have five new results. One of them is for an anonymous participant with 
kit number 574830.

Another is for Jonathan (kit number IN35671) who has traced his Pike 
ancestry back to Simon Pike who married in the parish of Stratfield Saye, 
Hampshire, in 1751.  A pushpin at Stratfield Saye has correspondingly been 
added to our map of Pike family origins at 
https://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=results.html#Map

Although we have not yet found a documentary connection between Jonathan's 
lineage and the others within Group 1, we can get a sense of which Group 1 
families are likely to be most closely related to his. First note that 
Jonathan is among the subset of Group 1 that has a value of 24 on the 
second of the STR markers. But more than that, notice that within this 
subgroup he is one of only five who have a value of 17 on the 25th marker. 
Continuing even further, among these five, Jonathan and Bruce (kit 209717) 
share additional distinctive marker values. Although STR markers can 
sometimes undergo parallel mutations (i.e., the same mutation can happen 
in two separate lineages, as opposed to both lineages inheriting a common 
mutation from a shared ancestor) as well as back-mutations (in which they 
revert to previous values), it appears that Bruce may be Jonathan's 
closest relative within our project, and likewise that Jonathan is likely 
Bruce's newest closest relative. Bruce's ancestry has been traced back to 
a John Pyke who was born at Baslow, Derbyshire in 1790, far from Hampshire 
where many other Group 1 lineages originate. The hope now is that further 
research into the Pike/Pyke families at Baslow and at Stratfield Saye will 
lead to a documentary connection between them.

A third new result within Group 1 is for Karl (kit number B489459) whose 
genealogical paper trail shows that he descends from John Pike who settled 
in Massachusetts in 1635, via John's son Robert. Within our project, 
Karl's closest known relative is his 5th cousin Robert (kit 248028). Both 
Karl and Robert have tested 37 STR markers, 35 of which match and two of 
which are different. One of the two differing values is for the very first 
marker, where Karl has the first and only instance of a value of 14 that 
we've so far seen within "Group 1", indicating that this marker mutated 
from a value of 13 to a value 14 within the six most recent generations of 
Karl's line (i.e., after it branched away from that of his 5th cousin 
Robert.

The other two new results within Group 1 are for a father and son, Michael 
and Patrick, with respective kit numbers 902378 and 896160. Michael has 
done the BigY test and so has obtained 111 STR markers, while his son 
Patrick has only tested 37 STR markers (all of which are identical to 
Michael's). Prior to doing DNA testing, they were uncertain about their 
Pike family history, but with the assistance of DNA and by carefully 
evaluating the test results (both autosomal results as well as Y-DNA 
results) it has been concluded that Michael's biological father was 
Charles William Pike whose grandfather Jonas Goding Pike was born in 1833 
at Jay, Maine. Another of Jonas' descendants was already in our project, 
namely Larry (kit 129135), who we now see is a 2nd cousin of Michael and a 
2nd cousin once removed of Michael's son Patrick.



Group 5:

An anonymous project member with kit number 860956 tested 37 markers and 
received results that showed that he belongs to Group 5, the other members 
of which are known to descend from an Archibald Pike who seems likely to 
have been born in the late 1600s, possibly at St Mary's County in 
Maryland. The early generations of this family have been difficult to 
determine, although it is suspected that the family descends from a Robert 
Pike who arrived in Maryland in 1633.



Group 10:

We have two new results for Group 10, most members of which carry the 
surname McPike, McPeak, or a variant thereof. One of the new results on 
hand is for anonymous kit number 887281 who tested 37 STR markers, and the 
other is for Shaun (kit number B389459) who tested 111 STR markers and who 
traces his McPeck ancestry back to a John McPeck who was born in 1778 in 
Pennsylvania. In addition to closely matching the other members of Group 
10, these two new results also closely match with each other. Within Group 
10 they are so far the only ones found to carry a value of 20 on the 13th 
STR marker.



Group 16:

So far all of the members of Group 16 who have provided ancestry details 
have been found to descend from Robert Pike and Anny Anderson who married 
in 1771 in Pennsylvania. New to Group 16 is James (kit number 865531) who 
tested 111 STR markers. His results clearly indicate that he too belongs 
to the genetic cluster that is our Group 16, thereby corroborating his 
paper trail which shows that he is a 3x great grandson of Robert Pike and 
Anny Anderson. As most other members of Group 16 have only tested 37 STR 
markers, James' 111 marker results will help us to better understand the 
genetic profile of this cluster, as well as to provide additional 
confidence for future matches that fit into Group 16.



Group 17:

Group 17 is an interesting one because we have already observed a wide 
geographic distribution for it, with members of Group 17 tracing their 
Pike lineages back to such places as the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland 
as well as several places in England and Wales, including Devon, Somerset, 
and Bristol.  Moreover, one of these lines traces back to the early 1600s.

We have two new results that have now been added to the Group 17 cluster. 
One of them is for Kenn (kit number 892734), whose 37 marker test results 
perfectly matched that of some other members of the group. Genealogical 
details for Kenn's lineage are not yet available

The other new result for Group 17 is for Harvey (kit number IN35855) who 
descends from a Robert Pike who is believed to have been born in the early 
1800s at St Lawrence on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland.  Harvey is 
the first such descendant of Robert to join our project, and so it is only 
now that we have our first glimpse into Robert's Y-DNA profile.  And we 
now see that it matches that of John Pike who was also an early resident 
of St Lawrence, where he and his wife Catherine were having children from 
1827 to 1845. It may be that John and Robert were brothers, which is a 
theory that is consistent with the DNA results that we now have.



Group 19:

A new result that fits into Group 19 has now increased the number of 
results for this group from 3 to 4. The newcomer is Ian (kit number 
MI20667) whose Pike lineage traces back to Dorset and Devon to ancestor 
Jacob Pyke who lived at Upottery, Devon and who would have been born in 
the late 1600s. Interestingly, despite being traced back so, far Ian's 
lineage does not yet link up with any of the other lineages within this 
group, one of which also traces back to Upottery in the 1600s.



Ungrouped Results:

Occasionally we do still encounter new test results that do not fall 
within one of our established genetic groups, which indicates that there 
are still Pike clusters for which we have not yet encountered more than 
just one result. Such is the case for an anonymous project member with kit 
number 863870.  He tested 37 markers, and although this was sufficient to 
place him with Y-DNA Haplogroup I, his particular markers do not appear to 
be close enough to any other project members to suggest a genealogical 
connection.



Other Matters:

Having now gone through the latest Y-STR test results, let me take a few 
moments to mention some other things, beginning with the Family Tree DNA 
conference in Houston that I attended in March.  I have regularly attended 
these conferences and again found it to be a rewarding and informative 
event.  For instance, it was interesting to hear Family Tree DNA's lab 
director give a presentation about the equipment in the lab and the 
processes used when analysing samples.  Some early members of our project 
may recall that the mouth swabs used to have tips made from filter paper 
that would swell up with saliva, and which were dropped into the 
collection vials through a detachment action that was like pushing a stick 
through a straw.  Family Tree DNA now uses mouth swabs that have flocked 
brushes at the end, and which are put into the vials by snapping them off 
the end of the stick.  This may sound like it is a minor and insignificant 
change, but it has had a major impact on lab processing.  The pipettes 
that collect samples out of the vials would occasionally get clogged up by 
bits of filter paper, and would then need manual attention.  The new 
flocked brushes do not experience this issue, which means that such delays 
no longer happen when DNA is being processed.  Also, the storage vials 
themselves have been redesigned and are now much more suitable for 
automated processing, resulting in an additional speedup. As a word of 
reassurance though, for anybody who used the old-style kits:  they are 
still good and can be processed by Family Tree DNA. They'll just require a 
bit more manual attention than the newer kits that are amenable to more 
automated handling.

Unveiled at the conference was a bigger and better "BigY" test.  In its 
original form the BigY test analysed somewhere around 10 million potential 
SNP locations on the Y-chromosome.  It was subsequently expanced to the 
"BigY-500" test, which reported values for approximately 500 STRs in 
addition to looking at about 10 million potential SNP locations. A new 
"BigY-700" test came into effect around November 2018.  It expands the 
coverage of the Y-chromosome that is analysed for potential SNPs up to 
about 22 million locations, and it also now reports values for 
approximately 700 STRs. Caleb Davis (a bioinformatics scientist at Family 
Tree DNA) gave a talk at the conference about the new test and showed an 
example of a family tree in which the new test was able to provide 
additional information to help reconstruct the structure of the family 
tree.  It was also stated that when compared to the previous BigY-500 
test, the BigY-700 test would typically achieve a 50% increase in high 
quality SNPs. For anybody who may want to delve into the technical 
details, there's a white paper about the new test here: 
https://blog.familytreedna.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/big_y_700_white_paper_compressed.pdf 
As I mentioned earlier, a number of BigY upgrades are currently in 
progress for members of our project, and I'm very much looking forward to 
seeing and working with the results.

A new "block tree" that is based on BigY-700 results was also discussed at 
the conference.  I have to say, I am thrilled about this! In short, it 
automates much of the process of building trees based on BigY SNP results, 
which is a task that I had to painstakingly do manually when preparing the 
updates that I did last year, such as this one: 
https://www.math.mun.ca/~dapike/family_history/pike/DNA/index.php?content=Updates/2018-B/update.html 
DNA blogger Roberta Estes has written about the new "block tree" feature 
here: 
https://dna-explained.com/2019/01/24/family-tree-dnas-new-big-y-block-tree/ 
Anybody who has taken the BigY test can view the block tree directly from 
their personal page at Family Tree DNA. I'll include some examples when I 
prepare my next BigY update for our project.

Something else that I discovered at the conference is that there's a new 
book about genetic genealogy, with chapters written by several leading 
experts.  Here's a link with more information about it: 
http://debsdelvings.blogspot.com/2019/03/now-available-advanced-genetic.html

This new book is about advanced topics.  For a more elementary 
introduction to genealogical DNA testing, I recommend this book that was 
published in 2016: 
https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2016/10/14/announcing-the-family-tree-guide-to-dna-testing-and-genetic-genealogy/



I have two final comments to make in this email message.  One is that this 
summer I'll again be going to the UK National Archives at Kew, where I 
will be looking for further documentation regarding a number of early Pike 
families.  The other is to mention that Family Tree DNA is having a sale 
in conjunction with Father's Day:  promotional discounts on Y-DNA tests 
(including upgrade tests) are in effect until Monday June 17th.



Thanks,

- David (dapike@mun.ca)