Genealogy & General Subjects Blog



Sunday, January 6, 2008

Colon Cancer's Mysterious Ancestor

News agencies ran the following this week:

"University of Utah researchers have tracked a gene mutation linked to colon cancer risk back to an English couple that sailed to colonial America before 1640.

The couple -- whose names aren't published in the researchers' report -- were born in England in the 1590s, married in 1615, and arrived in America with at least two children "some time before 1640," write Deborah Neklason, PhD, and colleagues.

Many generations later, that couple has thousands of descendants. For instance, more than 5,200 people living in Utah today are related to that couple, and many more North American families may share that heritage."


Well, of course this is intriguing. Which ancestor could it be? Unfortunately, the University of Utah is remaining mum to protect the currently living families. However, since only two branches of the family have conclusively been identified (in Utah and NY), many other possible descendants remain.

According to Internet rumors, the couple was Mr. and Mrs. George Frye. Accuracy of rumors is naturally unclear. However, the LA Times also is reporting these names.

There is another family with a reported mutation causing colon cancer also, but the names have never been identified. A possible puzzle?

Might be worth perusing your GEDCom... although remember that you can always have direct descendants you don't know about -- through incomplete or faulty research or through infidelity at any point in that line!

This topic is of interest to me especially since my grandmother died of colon cancer. However, I don't see any probable links between her family and the Frye descendants, since my grandmother's whole line of ancestors had recently immigrated from Scotland. So while some of my other ancestors may have carried the mutation, it seems unlikely that I do since none of my recent ancestors were ever affected by it.

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