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From:
Subject: Re: [HWE] DNa- Primary sources
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 12:39:23 -0800


Well put David, and so it begs the question... what are our goals in genealogy ?

> DNA may help the biological spread of a persons desendants but can only
> alianate peopel in my position.
> regards
> David Hanchard

The way I understand the hobby of genealogy is that at first it allows to satisfy some curiosity as to who were our ancestors. We often begin with known or varified dates and places. The beginning is often easy, although in Davids situation, even that can prove difficult.

Is it that many of us wish to know who our biological ancestors were or is it that we wish to know who our family were ?

And yes, DNA does now provide many with the technology to "break down walls".

Are those "walls" relating to just who were cousins and how many times removed from the main female or male line they are ? As mentioned, discovering who our middle age ancestors were by use of DNA sampling is not really possible. Well it is, but then one is faced with a somewhat moral dilema in deciding to exhume someone from 300 or more years ago. And what if you then discover that the person you "demanded" be exhumed, turns out not to be your ancestor? Is there then something immoral ?

Perhaps that raises yet another question ?

So that we are all on the same page here.. I believe that to "claim" a Huguenot ancestor means that you wish to show that you are related by law, or now, by DNA to someone who lived in France between 1520 and 1680. The term Huguenot was not used to describe any other person. The term Walloon refers to those of generally Netherlander descent who followed a specific religious ideal and again, in general, the time period is the same.

To say that your Huguenot ancestor was born in England or Ireland or the South Africa in 1750 or so, is a mis-statement of history. That descendent may have been a descendent of a Huguenot if he or she met the above criteria.

Is this correct ?

So! Back to our Huguenot ancestors' time.

There are no official records, well no completely documented records, of just how many Huguenots were killed or shall we say died during that period in France. And yet we as budding genealogists somehow expect to discover the burial site of one person. Well we need to do that to confirm by DNA matching that the person exhumed is our ancestor, don't we ?

I don't know about many of you, but our family researchers have found great difficulty just finding the burial place of an ancestor born in the 1800's, let alone 1500's.

Now so far I have only been discussing those Huguenots who died in France. Somewhere it has been written that upward of 400,000 fled to England, Holland, Germany, Spain, Sth Africa, Canada and the Americas, as well as many other regions.

Will DNA matching find their burial plot ? Highly unlikely ! So I wonder just how supportive to having primary documentation is the addition of DNA in determining that GGGGG Jean-Paul (Huguenot) was an ancestor.

Again.. yes..DNA can and does provide proof positive that someone is or is not your cousin. And indeed by having an "almost" match it can show that for up to 200 years back that your ancestor was indeed your biological ancestor.

But, was he your GGG Grandfather (using the David case as an example) ?

For me personally, I am happy to know that my many Huguenot ancestors (primary documentation) were just that. Some were multiple Great Grandparents who loved and gave their life for the freedom of their children to worship a different way. From researching our family we have found wonderful stories of bravery and cowardice.. hero and villain and each story adds to our understanding of our own genealogy.

Are some of them not my biological ancestor ? Is it that important ?

Some more things to ponder of our Huguenot past.

Kind Regards,
Peter Leroy

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