Success stories from ISOGG
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Family Finder DNA Success Story for the Pitts DNA Project
We had long suspected that Mary Lenora Pitts was a daughter of Pitman Pitts (b. 1784 VA) and Mary C. Andrews Pitts. This was, in part, due to the 1860 census showing Mary Lenora and another girl (possibly granddaughters) living with Mary C. Andrews Pitts. We had tried for several years to figure out a way to test this hypothesis using mtDNA by testing the descendants of Mary Lenora Pitts to a living person who was in a direct female line. But the other two daughters of Mary C. did not produce viable direct female lines.
The autosomal Family Finder test, however, made testing this hypothesis easy since the lines could be mixtures of males and females.
I matched Nancy (the descendant of Mary Lenora) on chromosome 3 and my sister Imogene matched her on a slightly larger segment in the same area on chromosome 3 (both with the Affymetrix and Illumina chips). My 3rd cousin once removed (Sue, verified by both Family Finder and Y-dna with her brother at 67 markers exact) matched Nancy on Chromosome 5 with the Affymetrix chip but not with the Illumina chip. My 1st cousin once removed, Celestine, however, did not match Nancy with the Affymetrix chip, but did match her on chromosome 16 with the Illumina chip. So all four of us that tested matched Nancy. We are fourth cousins with our most recent common ancestors being Pitman Pitts and Mary C. Andrews Pitts.
David Pitts
Pitts DNA Project co-administrator
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Y-DNA Success Story for Group 8 on the Pitts DNA Project
When I was about 16, my family took a vacation in Newfoundland, an island off the coast of Canada. It can be a cold stark place, which many "newfies" refer to as the "Rock". But it also has its own charm with its long grassy meadows reaching down to the sea where flocks of sheep graze, and, the low rumble of icebergs can be heard long before seeing their green glow as they float on a cloud of mist in the water. My father had been born on this island leaving at age ten. While I was charmed by the alien terrain of the place, I could not help wondering why my family had settled here and from where? A search for my Squires family's roots began during that vacation.
Thirty years later I know why they immigrated to Newfoundland. In the 17th and 18th century it was the place to go to make your fortune. Cod could be pulled from the water in baskets and profitably sold to the Catholic countries of Europe where the fish was in great demand during Lent and for Friday's dinner. But from where remained a mystery. How I discovered where my family came from is a success story about using Y-DNA.
The Squires paper trail took me back to Captain John Squires and his wife, Catherine both born in Newfoundland according to a 1794 census. They lived on a small island, Bell Isle, in Conception Bay Newfoundland as did another family of Squires. In 1799 John drowned with all hands as his ship went down in the bay during a storm. Strangely I could not find any records for John's birth but assumed he was related to the other Squires family on Belle Isle who were said to come from either Devon England or the Channel Islands (in the English Channel). Trips to Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, Devon's West Country Library in Exeter and the Bristol Record Office have not been successful. Finally I decided to turn to genetics.
My brother agreed to a 67 marker test. The results provided many 12 marker matches; none associated with the Squires surname. Becoming more proactive, I became the administrator of the Squires Surname project contacting people with the surname Squires to join. Although the Squires Surname project is small we began to find family groupings in the Carolinas and New England, but, not for my Squires YDNA. So, I began to recruit Squires with ties to Newfoundland. People were lovely agreeing to the test. I think they were as intrigued as I to learn about the family roots. But, again, we found no matches even at 12 markers.
Then one day I got an email from FTDNA telling me that I had a 67 marker match. There is was the match I had hoped for but the match belonged to someone named Pitt! Obviously the Squires and Pitts had lived near each other at some point. The next step was to find where and when. Correspondence established that the Pitt family had been traced back to an Andrew Pitt in Virginia. It was another Squires who found the Pitt/Squires connection on Belle Isle itself. The very 1794 census that records my ancestor Capt John Squires also records a James Pitt renting land from Frances Squires, the other Squires family on the island, and he was the right age to be Capt John's father. To confirm this possible paternity this far back in time, a distant cousin agreed to test confirming that our mutual great grandfather, born in 1823, carried the Squires/Pitt markers.
I felt pretty confident that James Pitt was the father of John Squires by a Squires female and did some research on the Pitt family of Newfoundland. According to them, James Pitt was born 1735 in Kennford, Devon, England, a small village on the Kenn river. Local church records confirmed that James was born there. However, I also discovered something else; the other family living in Kennford is Squires! Now I am not so sure when the Pitt/Squires Y-DNA change occurred. More testing is needed to untangle this new mystery. Y-DNA testing has given me new unexpected insights and holds the potential to reveal so much more about my family tree.
Susan Squires
Pitts DNA Project co-administrator
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Another Family Finder DNA Success Story for the Pitts DNA Project
We had heard family stories about William Pleasant Pitts (b. May 27, 1849 Mississippi) where he took the family's harvested cotton to town to sell and was never heard from again. With a lot of research I finally found him (unmarried) living in Fort Smith Arkansas in 1870. Later census records showed he married a Columbia Jane Unknown about 1875, and went to Texas and finally to Colorado where he died after having several children.
I posted these data on the web, and one day I received an e-mail from Coy who said he is a descendant of William Pleasant. Coy had some other parts of the story of William Pleasant Pitts. It turns out that William Pleasant Pitts married Georgia Ann Colvard (Nov. 10, 1870) and had two daughters: Charity and Ida Emma. Coy is a descendant of Charity. But then about 1875 William Pleasant Pitts evidently ran off to Texas with Georgia's sister, Columbia Jane Colvard. By 1900 they are living in Colorado. William Pleasant Pitts and Columbia Jane Colvard Pitts are buried in Cedar Cemetery Montrose County Colorado. They had 6 children, many of whom are also buried in central to western Colorado.
Family Finder provided a way to verify this story and it successfully predicted that Sue was a 3rd cousin (actually 3rd cousin once removed), Celestine was a 3rd cousin (actually 2nd cousin once removed), that I (David) was a 3rd cousin (correct), Nancy was a third cousin (actually a 4th cousin), and that Imogene (David's sister) was a 5th to remote cousin (actually a 3rd cousin).
David Pitts Pitts DNA Project co-administrator
What do I do if I have questions? Please read the Freq Asked Questions at World Families Network first. If you still have questions, contact one of the Project Administrators listed below.
Pitts Family Forum
Click here to order a Pitts DNA test
For more information on the relationship between DNA testing and traditional genealogy, visit World Families Network.
For more information contact:
Nancy McClellan at: nanmc at bellsouth.net
David Pitts at: paw281 at sbcglobal.net
John Pitts at: john at pitts26.freeserve.co.uk
This page was last updated on Jan. 12, 2012
Webmaster David Pitts
