Project News
18 Mar 2007: We now know the DNA signature of Edward Riggs, the immigrant to MA of 1633. This has been published in an article in the summer 2005 issue of New England Ancestors, a publication of NEHGS. 37-marker tests have strongly indicated that Bethuel Riggs, and Silas and James Riggs, Bethuel's putative brothers, are indeed Edwardian, as family legend has it. We now have four Riggs males at 25 markers and one at 37 markers who are definitely not Edwardian, and who do not match one another either. Three known descendants of Thomas Riggs of Gloucester MA (1653) have been tested at 37 markers to establish the signature of that well-known Riggs family in America. It is Edwardian too, much to everyone's surprise. The Edwardian signature has now been established at 67 markers.So has the Thomasian signature (which differs by 2 from the 67-marker signature for Edwardians).
See more detail at: http://alvyray.com/Riggs/DNA/ .