DNA Detective Work

DNA results can be very daunting to read and interpret.  As usual, I tend to just live with things for a while as I jump around trying to find links, and see what I come up with.  The hunt is what drives me!  While waiting for my knowledge to develop by reading The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine T. Bettinger, I was able to pin down a viable link to my native american test results.  Here's what I did:

On gedmatch.com I took my gedcom (family tree) file, looked for gedcom matches to my Tapp line, which has been proven native american, and search for others that had matches to my Tapp line.  I found a gentleman who was linked to the early Taptico chief's, as I believed to be.  Then, I took his DNA kit and compared it to mine.  I found we had a small 7.3 centimorgan match on our 11th chromosome.  I went back and looked at where the native american link was on my chromosomes and there it was the bottom 11th chromosome for us both, exact same place.

Now, this method is probably not the tried and true way of connecting methodically, but I like it because I got to play detective and have fun!

This is a picture of Captain John Smith attempting to take the King of Pamunkee (Opechancanough-brother or cousin to Powhatan, father of Pocahontas) prisoner in 1608, from an inserted picture collage from the book Virginia 1584-1607 The First English Settlement in North America edited by Alan Smith, published in 1957 in London (in my possession).  They are reprinted in this book from Captain John Smith's The General Historie of Virginia, New England & The Summer Isles, first published in 1624.

The figure of Opechancanough was based on a watercolor of an Algonquian-speaking chief who had been painted by John White in the 1580s, as well as a later engraving by Theodor de Bry.

The only knowledge of my native people is through the British documentation of the time.  The book I have, mentioned above, has great detail of their way of life, even if from the onlookers perspective.  This is a piece of my ancestors language:

My 7th great grandfather, King Taptico (1664-1695) (Wicocomico Tribe)probable father Machywap (Chicacoan tribe) were part of this later Powhatan Empire.  Man, did I have fun doing this!!