About us
We're looking for two groups of testers: (1) to confirm/disprove the Mary Hyanno theory, we need males or females whose mother's unbroken female lines go back to one of Austin's daughters. In these cases we're looking for mtDNA tests to determine Native American ancestry. We've had three participants so far, but their results differ. So we need to keep looking until we find 2 whose results match, and who descend from different daughters of Austin and Mary.
Finding these matrilineal lines going back to Austin and Mary is difficult (surnames change each generation), and mistakes in the genealogy are proving common.
(2) We seek male Bearses to prove or disprove the Romany ancestry via y-DNA tests. Nearly half of Romany males come from a single haplogroup (H1a.) We've just determined that Augustine (*see disclaimer note under Project Results) was R1a, which is found to a lesser degree in some Romany populations, but also found throughout Great Britain in populations descended from the Vikings. So the Romany hypothesis is neither proven nor disproven at this time. We await the availability of more DNA data from R1a1 Romany populations, with the possibility of finding close matches someday.
There are two additional women among Bearse descendants who may be Native American (Wampanoag) but documentation doesn't yet prove: Margaret Oguina m. Wheldon, and Mary Tuspuquion m. Sissell. So mtDNA tests in those lines could settle these lineages as well.
Help us solve these decades-old mysteries!
Finding these matrilineal lines going back to Austin and Mary is difficult (surnames change each generation), and mistakes in the genealogy are proving common.
(2) We seek male Bearses to prove or disprove the Romany ancestry via y-DNA tests. Nearly half of Romany males come from a single haplogroup (H1a.) We've just determined that Augustine (*see disclaimer note under Project Results) was R1a, which is found to a lesser degree in some Romany populations, but also found throughout Great Britain in populations descended from the Vikings. So the Romany hypothesis is neither proven nor disproven at this time. We await the availability of more DNA data from R1a1 Romany populations, with the possibility of finding close matches someday.
There are two additional women among Bearse descendants who may be Native American (Wampanoag) but documentation doesn't yet prove: Margaret Oguina m. Wheldon, and Mary Tuspuquion m. Sissell. So mtDNA tests in those lines could settle these lineages as well.
Help us solve these decades-old mysteries!