All,
The main web page for the Carpenter Cousins DNA project has been
revised (slightly) yet again. The latest changes are twofold:
1) Each monthly list of new test results (in the Project News section)
is now supplemented by a list of the groups to which those new test
results belong.
2) Paragraphs added or revised in the last round of changes are now
highlighted in yellow. Paragraphs added or revised in the previous
round are highlighted in gray.
One of the paragraphs that is now highlighted struck me as worthy of
being reported again to this forum, since many people may have missed
it when it was new news. It concerns the discovery that three of the
67 commonly tested markers have different values in groups 2 (the
Providence Carpenters) and 3 (the Rehoboth Carpenters). Here is the
paragraph:
Based on [the] now-confirmed discrepancy [at DYS635], along with the
originally discovered difference at DYS464d, and the additional
difference at DYS413a, we can state with 95% confidence that the
most recent common ancestor of the two groups was more than 2
generations before the immigrants and less than about 20.
Therefore, the DNA testing has very nearly ruled out the
often-repeated claim that the Williams were first cousins. The most
likely estimate is about 7 generations, but that is a very rough
estimate, and the 95% confidence interval is a more reasonable
description of what the DNA is telling us.
(This can be seen in context at:
http://members.cox.net/johnrcarpenter/index.htm#g2vg3)
I realize that many Carpenter researchers are tracking families other
than the two New England sets, but I think this is still an important
milestone in Carpenter research. The same sort of distinction (with
shorter or longer time ranges, mostly longer) can be drawn between
other groups of Carpenters who participate in the DNA project.
John Chandler