DNA Accepted as Mayflower Descent Proof

This could be a landmark decision for lineage societies. The Mayflower Society has now accepted DNA evidence as proof of a descent from one of the passengers on that little ship.

John Hawes married a granddaughter of Mayflower passenger John Howland, Desire Gorham. Therefore, John and Desire Hawes’ children were descendants of a Mayflower passenger. They had a son John Hawes, who left New England and popped up in North Carolina. Same person? If so, his issue could join the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Historian General Ann S. Lainhart and Assistant Historian General Alicia Williams recently accepted this line — on the basis of a Hawes DNA study of the Hawes Y chromosome.

Everyone involved in DNA genealogy seems to agree that the various lineage societies would accept DNA evidence sooner or later but this is the first such occurrence I am aware of. The fact that the acceptance came from Ann Lainhart and Alicia Williams further reinforces the acceptance. (Ann Lainhart is one of the nation's top experts on Mayflower and other New England genealogy while Alicia Williams is another expert in all the Mayflower genealogies with special expertise in the John Alden family.)

Lainhart notes in an article in the June 2006 issue of The Mayflower Quarterly that the Myles Standish family and the Pilgrim Edward Doty Society are starting Y-line DNA projects. That’s the male line, also known as the surname line. For information, visit www.mylesstandish.org and www.edward-doty.org.

Comments

[Terence Kelley]

To what DNA sequence was this Dawes DNA compared?

What was the 67 marker sequence?

[Robin M]

But how does the lineage society know that the DNA didn't come from the brother of the Mayflower passenger and whose descendants may have arrived on another ship at a different time?

[Allen Hunt]

I dont speak for this society but I will mention this. It is still important to have a paper trail. Genetic Genealogy only enhance the paper trail. It does not replace the paper trail by itself.

[Susan Daily]

In addition to the good comments above, the male-only Y-DNA of John Howland, did not pass to his granddaughter, since she was female. So they are only testing the male DNA of the first John Hawes, and if he had other brothers or male Hawes cousins, they would share his DNA, too, which would not be Mayflower related. This is really opening a big can of worms. JMHO.

[Dan Wych]

RE: "But how does the lineage society know that the DNA didn't come from the brother of the Mayflower passenger and whose descendants may have arrived on another ship at a different time?"

A brother of John Howland, Arthur Howland did arrive on a later boat and has many descendants including all the many descendants of John Damon of Scituate who married Arthur's daughter.

[Ken - hdpth-DNA]

as has been mentioned elsewhere ... this announcement seems to be referring to an article published a year ago in the Mayflower Quarterly (vol 72 #2, June 2006).

I don't have access to that article myself :( But obviously [as you and I should know] they [the Mayflower Society] aren't allowing applicants to join based souly on one DNA test results alone ... as has been said main times in the past, test results DO NOT replace ones actual paper trail documentation, but rather go hand in hand to prove weather the paper trail is on the correct path or not :)

Did you read the paragraph within Eastman's article, that credits whom the approval/ acceptance came from ? I wouldn't think this acceptance was done just willy nilly off the cuff ...

[Alicia Williams]

The DNA being traced is not Howland -- it is male line Hawes. Edward Hawes, the first of that family to settle on Cape Cod, had only one son, John, who married Desire Gorham, granddaughter of John Howland. Therefore, all Cape Cod Haweses are Howland descendants. DNA from a documented descendant from one of John and Desire (Gorham) Hawes's sons was compared to the DNA of the North Carolina Hawses and resulted in a match within 300 years.

That information was combined with paper documentation that showed the NC Hawes family connected to a Hawes of Rhode Island. The only question was whether the RI Hawes was one of the Cape Cod family. We concluded after reviewing all evidence that it was "probable" the NC Hawes family descended from the Hawes family of Cape Cod -- obviously, the connection could be earlier in England, but we felt the evidence sufficient to approve the line.