In 1620, Miles Standish led 101 other Mayflower colonists ashore in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. He battled Indians, took part in the first Thanksgiving and inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's classic poem about his unrequited love for a Pilgrim maiden. Although historians recorded much about the feisty old soldier, he took one piece of vital data to his grave 348 years ago: the whereabouts of his birth. His descendants have been guessing for years where he was born. Now DNA testing may be able to solve this 400-year-old mystery.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, staff reporters Robert Tomsho and Emily Nelson describe the testing already done as well as more tests planned for the future. You can read the article if you click here.
My thanks to Walt Newcomb for telling me about the article.
