Hello,
This is the first time that I have ever sent out a mass email to the
people with whom I have been in contact on the Pyeatt/Pyatt/Piatt family
genealogy over the years. I am very excited to tell you that the newest
technology
available in genealogy is a reality for our family! The Piatt (and
other spellings) DNA study has begun with an initial base of 13 subjects.
The purpose of the study (Y chromosome) is to use science to confirm or
deny a common male ancestor among the various Piatt lines. The Y-DNA is
passed virtually unchanged from father to son to son to son, and so on.
Therefore,
any participating family will be able to determine which one of the
various lines they tie into by comparing their report to that of the other
participating subjects. This is being done through Family Tree DNA http://www.familytreedna.com
While I do not know as much as I would like about this subject, the testimonials which I have heard from other researchers and the potential implications of proving bloodlines through DNA are just amazing. For those of us with 'brickwalls' (mine is John Pyeatt/Pyatt/Piatt in Missouri before 1790 http://www.angelfire.com/ar/pyeatt/JohnP.html) we will learn which family group we most closely match and will be able to direct our energies to researching 'the old fashioned way' in the RIGHT places. The first few participants have started receiving their results and are thrilled!
We invite any MALE with the surname of Piatt, Pyatt, Pyott, Pyeatt, Pyeatte, Peatt, etc, (I'll use P**tt from here on out) to consider joining the DNA study. It is necessary to limit the participants to males as it is the Y-DNA which will be studied. If the male descendant of a P**tt is not named P**tt this indicates a female in the line between his P**tt ancestor and him. The presence of a female in the lineage would break the passage of the Y-DNA and make the male descendant not named P**tt ineligible. Although females, even born P**tt, are not eligible to submit DNA samples they may still participate by encouraging their P**tt fathers, brothers, or male cousins to participate. It's even possible to "sponsor" (pay the fee for) a participant who is less interested in research but willing to submit a DNA sample.
Participants in the study pay a fee of $169.00 for the 25 marker Y chromosome
test which is being used in this study. Knowing how much I have spent over
the years on copies, books, photos, postage and trips, this doesn't seem
to be too high of a price to pay for this service (look at the Family Tree
DNA sight to see what information you will receive). Some of you are not
as interested in your P**tt line as you may be in some of your other lines.
I would encourage you to see what surnames have studies going and join
as many as you can afford. I believe one of the other studies going on
for which I am interested (on the Brown family) is $100.00. But, even if
you yourself are not interested/not able to participate, I do want all
P**tts to know that this study has started. Maybe you have P**tt cousins
somewhere who do not participate in genealogy or who do not use
the internet whom you could inform. For those of you who know a 'last
of the line' P**tt, this may be the last chance to collect a specimen before
they depart this life. The specimens will be stored by the University of
Arizona (they will not use them in any way) and the possibility exists
to have further DNA tests run from those same sample years later.
Collecting a sample is easy. It requires two swabs from the inside of the cheeks taken 8 hours apart. No hair or blood is required for this sample. Payment can be made to the company by check when the sample is returned to the company for testing.
If you want to join our study you may notify Laverne Piatt at lapiatt@att.net
to send you a "join code" which will enable you to order the sampling kit
yourself. Or you may ask that Laverne, as project coordinator, have a kit
sent to you. If you choose to have her direct a kit to you or another participant
she would need the following information:
name of participant
mailing address of participant
phone number of participant
e-mail address of participant
The last two are for contact purposes only. If you are sponsoring someone
else you may want to supply your own phone and e-mail for notification
of results. If you don't want to do that, Laverne's phone and e-mail can
be the ones of record. Privacy should not be a concern. Results will be
posted to the company website by a code number. Any sharing of results
publicly by the participants can be done as "the representative of the
line of Jacob Piatt (III) and Elizabeth Dunham" for instance rather than
by the participant's name. Should you desire to sign the release form allowing
FamilyTreeDNA to include your results in their database (Please Do!) they
will put you in touch with other participants who 'match' your DNA. You
will most likely find a slew of cousins whom you've never known existed.
I would expect it to happen as soon as the results come back (5-7 weeks)
and
may continue for many years.
Please consider helping us make this surname study representative of all the P**tt, etc lines. If you are even remotely certain that you can find a P**tt named relative who could represent your side of the family, please order the kit today and return it when you have identified the subject (or, as in my case, when you have the extra cash (think tax refund)) to return it.
p.s. I am sending this from my work email as I couldn't add as many addresses into my preferred email mcpgene@excite.com as I would have liked. Feel free to respond to either address.
Marianne C. Pyeatt
P O Box 504
Mountain Home, Arkansas 72654-0504
870-488-5453
http://www.angelfire.com/ar/pyeatt/index.html
p.s. If you haven't been to my site in a while, I have been busy adding
marriages and the 1880 census (for all of us P**tt); working on several
different family lines and have fixed the search engine (which has been
returning no hits for a while). If you go there, see if I have your family
line at my researchers page at http://www.angelfire.com/ar/pyeatt/lines.html