This page contains one note:

LeStrange/Strange/Strang/Stronge/Strong

DNA Study Note #10:

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The subject of this note is a discussion of certain aspects of the DNA Study as it relates to The New England Strong descendants of Elder John Strong and to the Strongs of Southwest England.

Please Refer to: DNA Results for presentation of information relating to the Kits discussed here.  Please also see Note #3 in connection with the overall relationship of the subject kit #5858 to the rest of the New England Strong Lineage Grouping.

It is well documented the New England Strong descendants of Elder John Strong can trace their lineage back an additional two or three generations into Southwest England. (Elder John came from Dorsetshire, in the southwest of England).

Full, 25-marker, results for kits #6811 & 7257 are presented. The result for #6811 represents the John, Jr line and kit #7257 represents the Jedidiah line, each descended from Elder John Strong of Massachusetts. Kits #6811 & #7257 seem to establish a present day set of variables regarding the Elder John Strong haplotype, albeit with a two step difference in 25 markers. While it MAY be significant that they had different mothers, I rather doubt it. It initially was very difficult to say where the difference arose, other than to say that a mutation probably arose somewhere in one line or the other during the past 300 years. More testing will confirm which is the "correct" Elder John Haplotype.   However, as additional results have been received, it has become more apparent that the “Assumed New England Haplotype” is correct.   Both kits, #6811 & 7257, appear to have one mutation each.   Kit #6811 is aberrant at DYS 464d, =19 vice 18.   Kit #7257 is aberrant at DYS 449, =30 vice 29.  We need additional DNA information from known descendants of the various Elder John Strong sublineages to be able to establish with any definition when the differentiation between the sub-lineages represented by these two kits occurred.   Such data might also help identify subjects with similar apparent mutation differentiation as belonging to particular sublineages.

With regard to the other kits grouped with the New England kits, fairly obviously #5858 is closer to the EJ lineage than is #6746. As indicated in Note #3 there is some evidence supporting the hypothesis that #5858 is also descended from Elder John Strong. Remarkably, given the amount of confusion arising from the apparent mutations in various groups, the result in #6811 is only 4 steps in 25 removed from the HG1 Average values. Further, there is an exact match in the first 12 markers with the results from kit #5858; the 2-step difference between them arises on DYS 447 and on DYS 464d. DYS 447 seems to be a source of much of the differentiation in the other groupings as well. And, of course, DYS 464d is one of the rapidly moving markers, which may be of some significance.

Kit #15744 represents an interesting case.  The participant, surnamed “Dotson”, is a member of a family group which has been “quietly told” their parents were the children of Jedediah Strong VII.   With the exception of this family legend, there has been no other proof of the relationship until now.   There is an exact match in the first 12 markers (STR) of  Kit #15744 with the first 12 markers of both Kits #6811 & 7257.  As previously anticipated, the second 13 markers (PP3) matched the “Assumed New England Strong Haplotype”, marking members of the Elder John Strong lineages.

Kit #15388 tests out the “Brickwall” theory of the researcher that Reuben Strong of New York was  a descendant of Elder John Strong.   There is an exact match with the “Assumed New England Haplotype”.   The researcher has been able to eliminate the possibility of  descendancy from the New Jersey Strang lineages, which had some validity as an alternative hypothesis.  The researcher has been exchanging info with “another Strong researcher who lives in Michigan and is also related to Reuben Strong. He had lots of info but has also been stuck on Reuben's family and where they came from. We are hoping the DNA data will give us some clues as to where to focus the search. There are census clues but nothing definitive. He has located a  number of Strongs from this line who are buried in Ontario”.  As the researcher has said, “We are still stuck on Reuben Strong, b. around 1790. We have filled in a few blanks on his family but hoping to identify, from the DNA, where we should be focusing our search.”  Hopefully, the results reported here will help provide that focus; the results indicate Reuben Strong was indeed a descendant of Elder John Strong.

Sub-Group "Southwest England?" (1 kit): As yet, we do not have definitive results for enough of the lineages originating in Southwest England. However, there is strong speculation re Kit#6746 that the lineage originated in Hampshire, in Southwest England. Given the near match between Kit#6746 and #s 6811, 7257, & 5858 in the STR portion of the results, there may be a connection for all of the kits with Southwest England. Note however, that in the PPS portion of the results, the match seems to fall apart, with an apparent additional 5 steps of difference between kit #6746 and the other kits. Is this because of the rapid mutation rate phenomena discussed above? Note, if we discount the differences attributable to the so-called rapid mutation markers, there are only two steps of difference in these kits over 25 markers! Unfortunately, we probably can't make that discount without considerable additional evidence, either in the form of additional test results from other participants or in the form of documentary evidence. Neither seems to be soon in the offing.

Note the insertion of two new columns in the presentation, entitled "Known MRCA" and "Speculative MRCA". Links are provided to a new page containing an experimental presentation of data, probabilities, and estimates re both Known and Speculative Most Recent Common Ancestor's for certain members of the "New England" group, as well as other groups. I invite your review and comments as to the effectiveness of the presentation, and whether we can correct or improve the contents or presentation of the MRCA analyses.

In a sense, we seem on the verge of merging five different groups here. Certainly this would be consistent with prior existing hypotheses that the Southwest England, New England, Southern, and Norfolk lineages are connected back in England. There are ways of deducing who has the ancestral haplotype, albeit in an indirect way which is subject to random drift.According to Ann Turner, Genealogy-DNA Rootsweb List Administrator, aka "DNACousins", quoted here from a message in the Genealogy-DNA List archives dated Sunday, April 06, 2003,
"the reasoning goes like this.

The common ancestor has a certain haplotype, and he begins to accumulatedescendants who inherit that haplotype. At some random point in time, onebranch will experience a mutation, and it will begin to accumulatedescendants with the new haplotype. But this branch is starting from scratch,while the original haplotype now has many descendants who preserve theoriginal haplotype. They keep on accumulating descendants, too. At somerandom point, another branch experiences a mutation, and IT starts fromscratch accumulating descendants.

This process is repeated, so that you end up with what we call a star-shapednetwork diagram. The center of the star is the ancestral haplotype, and eachray is a different branch which experienced a mutation. There's anillustration of a star-shaped network on Doug Mumma's site near the bottom of the page."

At some point we may want to try to develop such a star-shapednetwork diagram in analyzing the results of the English-New England-Southern groupings.

David B. Strong (Click for contact information).

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