Friday, May 11, 2007

Settling of Jamestown

See site: www.smgf.org
In conjunction with the 400th anniversary of the settling of Jamestown, theSorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation is offering an opportunity todiscover possible ancestors who helped settle the colony. You do need tohave an all-male (Y-chromosome) or an all-female (mtDNA) line of descent toBe able to use this service. The following announcement was written by the Sorenson Molecular GenealogyFoundation: Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation Invites Curious to Search World’sLargest Genetic-Genealogy Database for Jamestown Ancestors During 400thAnniversary For Anyone Who Ever Wondered Whether They Had Ancestors Living in America’sFirst Permanent European Settlement: Non-Profit Research OrganizationBuilding the World’s Only Genetic Database Specifically for GenealogicalPurposes Offers to Help People Answer That Question for Themselves SALT LAKE CITY--Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF), a non-profitscientific organization with the world’s largest correlated genetic andgenealogy catalog of more than 4 million records from 172 countries, isinviting anyone who is curious about their family history to search its freeonline database to learn if they had forebears in Jamestown—Europeancolonists’ first permanent settlement in North America—during itsQuadricentennial celebration. Four hundred years ago, on May 14, 1607, three small, leaky wooden shipscarrying 108 settlers landed on a bank of the James River in what is nowVirginia. These first arrivals were English, but the settlement of Jamestownsoon became a genetic and genealogical crossroads of European, NativeAmerican and African people. Today Jamestown is celebrated as the wellspringof modern America because it had representative government, a freeEnterprise economy and culturally diverse population. “To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, we wouldlike to invite everyone who is interested in their ancestry to search ourdatabase to learn if they are related to any of those early Jamestowninhabitants,” said Scott Woodward, who is executive director of thefoundation and one of the world’s leading researchers in molecular genealogy “We know by reviewing the Register of 17th Century Ancestors provided byThe Jamestown Society that more than two-thirds of the family surnames inthe register are also in our database. Even better, through a combination ofgenetics and genealogy, we have multiple direct paternal lines from some ofthese first settlers, which gives us their exact Y-chromosome geneticProfile.” The free, online SMGF database (www.smgf.org) is unique because it can linkanindividual’s genetic profile to specific ancestors by name going back six toeight generations or further. The non-profit foundation was established bybiotech billionaire James LeVoy Sorenson to foster goodwill and fellowshipamong humankind by showing scientifically how closely related each person isTo every other. Of the settlers’ surnames from the first three groups to arrive in Jamestownin 1607 and 1608—only to face disease, starvation and attacks by localtribes—more than half are found on the SMGF database. Surnames in theY-chromosome, or paternal line, database include Wingfield, Archer, Herd,Love, Emry, Cantrill, Bayley, Bentley, May, Dole, Cotton and Graves.Surnames in the mtDNA, or maternal line, database include Gosnoll, Sands,Sudley, Waler, Midwinter, Wotton, Gore, Martin, Dowse and Hancock.Any individual can query the SMGF database for genetic-genealogy informationfor free by obtaining their DNA profile (usually by a swish of mouthwash)from a commercial genomics laboratory and then entering the results into theWeb site’s database search menu. For those who wish to participate byContributing their records to the foundation’s database, the process is freeconvenient and private. Simply request a kit on the SMGF website and thensubmit a DNA sample and an accompanying four-generation pedigree chart. About Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation (SMGF), a non-profit researchorganization, is the pioneer in the rapidly developing fields of geneticgenealogy and DNA analysis. Combining powerful new DNA research withconventional genealogy, SMGF has created a potent new “Rosetta Stone” ofgenetic understanding that connects individuals throughout the world withtheir ancestors and living relatives. SMGF has created the world’s largestrepository of correlated genetic and genealogical information—more than 4million total ancestors’ names representing linked DNA samples and pedigreecharts from 107 countries, or more than half of the nations of the world. Sally Rolls Paviasallypavia2001@yahoo.comList Owner: GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES-L-request@rootsweb.comArchives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES"All incoming and outgoing email checked by Norton Anti-Virus"

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