April 19, 2011 – DNA test results for a George Pemberton of Cheshire arrived today with very exciting consequences! This George is clearly in the same Pemberton branch as a George Pemberton of Cheshire born about 1685! To see for yourself why this is so, you can click here: http://www.familytreedna.com/public/pemberton/ and look for the menu named “Y-DNA RESULTS” near the top of the page and pull down to “Colorized”. The Pemberton DNA Project test results will be displayed in chart form. Look for the chart row named “Mode”. This is a computer generated deduction from the test results immediately below it. The computer looks at the values in the group for each marker and deduces that the most frequent value is the ancient value. Thus the Mode line is what the DNA of the ancient common ancestor would have to be. The mutations from that ancient DNA are highlighted (very dimly) in the present day DNA results. You can see one mutation for each of the four people in the group.
The upshots of this exciting development are manifold:
- The Pemberton DNA Project has produced its first ancient DNA profile
- We know the name and birth place of at least one of the bearers of this profile: George Pemberton, Cheshire, 1685
- This firmly identifies a Pemberton family branch
- Today’s Pemberton’s can use their own DNA to prove whether they are of this branch
- Two previously separated pedigrees are now known to lead to a common ancestor
- This common ancestor was probably born between 1550 and 1685 and could be the 1685 George
- The “owners” of the two pedigrees have already begun to collaborate on merging their pedigrees
The Collaboration Group
A “Research Group” has already been established on this website where a “Discussion” journal of the on-going research is logged. The Group is called “George’s of Tarvin and Nantwich”.
This is a wonderful demonstration of the power of genealogical DNA. If you are a Pemberton or a Pemberton family history researcher, you will want to consider joining the Pemberton DNA Project!
