This project is concerned with identifying the descendants and ancestors of Thomas and Christian Pettit, early immigrants to New England, through Y-DNA analysis. Those who choose to test are contributing not only to the understanding of this Pettit family but to the broader picture of the population from whence they emerged. Because we're being selective, so will be the membership. If you request to join, please include your full lineage with your request. For those who are descended from a Pettit that has not yet been proven as a descendant, please demonstrate your lineage. As of this writing (9/8/20), we've shown that Thomas was of haplogroup BY200368, a group that presently has 22 markers. Eventually, those will be broken down into subclades. We cannot yet know at what point in time any of those markers came into the lineage, although they were all certainly present in the Y-DNA stream by the time Thomas was born. In other words, he was born into a family that had the vast majority, it not all, of those 22 markers. The presence of BY200368 does not necessarily mean descent from Thomas because his brothers and cousins, to any number of degrees, also had them. So far, however, he is the only documented Pettit of his Y type to have immigrated to New England. It's within the realm of possibilities that we might learn more about that through Y-DNA. To date, we have found three subclades of BY200368, only one of which has a documented descent from Thomas. The genealogy and historical records for the others have long suggested a relationship. The DNA nails it. Although the paper trail is still essential, additional Y-DNA testing will eventually guide us to a resolution. Membership will not be accepted by those who are not of the Pettit-Mellowes group. We're not in competition with anyone. But the project will accept not only Y-DNA testers. One member claims descent in the daughter-line from his wife, Christian. She is of MT-DNA haplogroup H36. We're presented, then, with a binary situation, Was Christian of H36 or not? Knowing for sure could confirm or deny speculation as to her own ancestry. The discovery can be gained only by a consensus among other MT-DNA results. The project will also accept autosomal testers. But the lineage must be included in your join request. For example, here's my "autosomal" lineage from Elias Pettit, now proved to have been of BY200368, Elias Pettit (-1794) Thomas Pettit (-1830+) Joseph Pettet (1815-1888) m Elizabeth Mohler Amelia Mohler Pettit (1846-1930) m Greenberry Cooley Joseph William Cooley (1867-1947) m Araminta D Johnson McCabe Cooley (1899-1958) m Marie Henrietta Hennequin Allison Claude Cooley (1925-2011) m Billie Dell Hogue Michael Cooley (1950-)