Hi Jack & ALL,
While Jack's point (see below for Jack's point) may be at least partially
valid, it is not relevant to the issue I was and am discussing - We CAN
likely determine whether we are descendants of the families of Va Dare and
of Poca.
Any descendants of the FAMILY of Va Dare, should they exist, which is
quite likely, and it isn't known by any accepted source, one way or another,
whether there are or are not any DIRECT descendants of Va Dare herself,
might be determined by dna testing, of the type I discussed (& see extended
discussion below). If there were, such descendants of Va Dare herself, would
probably also have a significant dna constituency of NA (Native American)
dna, perhaps of the 'Croatoan' tribe or nation (as Jack noted, the
'message'
carved in the Lost Colony tree). This tribe lived not too far (particularly
by internal waterways) from the Powatan tribe of Poca, and from Jamestown.
There is some, but definitely not dispositive, evidence of lighter skinned,
lightered haired members of those tribes.
But that is a digression from the Issue. The Issue is whether dna could
assist in determining familial relationships to the families of Va Dare and
of Pocahontas. Va Dare was the only daughter of the marriage of Ananias Dare
and his wife Eleanor White, d/o the Lost Colony's chief, John White. Ananias
Dare also had a son, John Dare, almost certainly not also a son of Eleanor,
probably from a prior marriage. That has been established by a US federal
govt study, a (flawed OCR) copy of the report of which I posted to the
Dare-L List (and other sites) over a yr ago. In the Perogative court of
England, two named men 'fought' legally over the right to be appointed as
John's guardian. There are court documents, cited in the US study, in
support of this genealogical fact.
The point, the Issue, is that we do presently know of relevant dna avail
from Poca descendants, and believe we will be able to establish direct dna
descendancy from the family of Va Dare's parent's families, including of
John and Eleanor White, and of Ananias Dare, including of his son, Virginia
Dare's half brother John. While nothing is certain, the likelihood is quite
significant that, if there are blood descendants of Poca & Va, we will
eventually be able to establish them to a high degree of probability, if not
absolute certainty. And the downside is near zero - actually, a few cotton
tipped swabs of mouth saliva and $200 plus postage, is the 'risk'.
I'm going to determine in a few months, depending on research results of
the efficacy of these tests, whether to participate, depending whether the
results could be used for familial determinations. Remember, the test
results could also be used to refute a Gen line thought to establish your
gen lines, or to call into question the 'purity' of your bloodlines. Some
might be deterred by that possibility. In the meantime, there is an extended
discussion of the kit and use of dna in Gen research below, along w/a Link
for more info.
Best,
Barry
On Sat, 9 Feb 2002 11:07:19 -0500
"JackVButler" <jackvbutler(a)worldnet.att.net> wrote:
No, there is no chance that the Dare line that married into the Witherington
line descends from Virginia Dare. There is, in fact, absolutley no evidence
that anyone descends from her - she was still toddler when she, along with
the rest of the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke disappeared. It is not
unreasonable to assume that when their situation became desparate that the
colonists left with one or another of the Indian tribes in the area. But
later settlers never found any such evidence, and no one has any real clue
as to what happened to them.
But Barry clearly likes to think big and to go for the long shots <G>.
Here is a blurb about Virginia Dare that I pulled from an on-line site:
"The granddaughter of Governor John White, Virginia Dare was the first child
born of English parents in the new world. The child's mother was White's
daughter Eleanor. Her father, Ananias Dare, served as one of the Governor's
assistants. Virginia was born on August 18, 1587, days after the colonists
arrival on Roanoke Island. Her baptism on Sunday following her birth was the
second recorded Christian sacrament administered in North America. The first
baptism had been administered a few days earlier to Manteo, an Indian chief
who was rewarded for his service by being christened and named ''Lord''.
When Governor White was forced to return to England for supplies, Virginia
Dare was less than a month old, and he left with heavy heart, never
realizing that he would never see her or any of the other colonists who
remained behind again. Leaving the new world and his family behind must have
been difficult for White. A secret code had been worked out, that should
they leave Roanoke Island, they were to carve their new location on a
conspicuous tree or post. If the move had to be made because of an attack,
either by Indians or Spaniards, they were to carve over the letters or name
a distress signal in the form of a Maltese cross.
Three years to the month later, White returned to find the word
''Croatoan''
without any cross or other sign of distress. To this day, no one is certain
were the lost colony went, or what happened to them. "
Extended discussion of the kit and use of dna in Gen research
" ============================================================
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