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Researchers to test Lost Colony theory
Event runs through weekend
By DAN PARSONS
Staff Writer
WILLIAMSTON — Jennifer Sheppard doesn’t think that finding the Lost Colony would change the allure of what she calls a “mystery for all Americans.”
She and a group of researchers gathered in Williamston on Friday night hoping science will prove what they say has already been established with family trees — that the descendants of the Lost Colony have been found in Chocowinity.
“If we are able to establish a connection, we will be able to track people’s families back to before the Plymouth Rock,” Sheppard, director of genealogic research for Lost Colony Center for Science and Research, said Friday. “When someone says ‘I’m related to the Pilgrims,’ I’ll be able to say, ‘Oh yeah? Mine were there to meet the boat. What took you so long?’”
Starting with a list of 168 names, the research could mushroom to include thousands of people, because everyone who is related to them is also related to the Lost Colony, she said.
Fred Willard, director of the center, which is hosting the ongoing gathering today and tomorrow, was no less enthusiastic that the center’s research could be verified with DNA evidence.
“We have the opportunity, with DNA, to scientifically test the hypothesis that we have arrived at on paper,” Willard said Friday. “We might be wrong, but I’m almost positive we are not.”
Using the list of 168 surnames, the center mapped a progression of land ownership from Manteo to Chocowinity. Center leaders said the progression proves the colony’s descendants moved there after disappearing from Manteo between 1587 and 1590. Using DNA, which is collected by cheek swab from people today with those surnames, the center hopes to scientifically prove its hypothesis.
Sheppard was responsible for the paper trail that led the team from Manteo to Chocowinity. Tracing the names of colonist descendants through deeds has proved that progression, she said. Of her first project involving DNA, Sheppard said science can now solidify what she has already established on paper.
“What DNA can do is connect the genealogy and fill in the gaps,” she said. “We know that the Croatan, Hatteras and Mattamuskeet Indians are all the same Indians but at different names; we have proven that progression through deeds. When we can tie the science in with the genealogy, we can certify it.”
The main attraction during the first night of the weekend-long symposium was the “Eleanor Dare Stone.” About the size of a dinner plate, the stone is inscribed on both sides with Old English and is purported to be a message for John White, the colony’s governor, who had returned to England for supplies at the time the colonists vanished.
“There are a lot of questions about its authenticity,” Southerland said. “About 40 others appeared in a year’s time after it was found claiming to be authentic, but they have all been discounted. If this is the real thing, it tells us that the colonists were attacked by Indians,” Southerland said. “But, it does say that some of them survived.”
As to Southerland’s belief in the authenticity of the relic, he calls himself a “healthy skeptic.” Southerland teaches history at Brenau University in Gainesville, Ga., which owns the stone and the 49 others that have proved to be fakes.
“There is some probability that it is authentic, but there is no scientific evidence to prove one way or the other,” he said. “Taken into account with the others, it seems unlikely, but no one has proven that it isn’t.”
Willard said he was on the fence about the stone’s authenticity, but said, “I want it to be real.”
By DAN PARSONS
Staff Writer
WILLIAMSTON — Jennifer Sheppard doesn’t think that finding the Lost Colony would change the allure of what she calls a “mystery for all Americans.”
She and a group of researchers gathered in Williamston on Friday night hoping science will prove what they say has already been established with family trees — that the descendants of the Lost Colony have been found in Chocowinity.
“If we are able to establish a connection, we will be able to track people’s families back to before the Plymouth Rock,” Sheppard, director of genealogic research for Lost Colony Center for Science and Research, said Friday. “When someone says ‘I’m related to the Pilgrims,’ I’ll be able to say, ‘Oh yeah? Mine were there to meet the boat. What took you so long?’”
Starting with a list of 168 names, the research could mushroom to include thousands of people, because everyone who is related to them is also related to the Lost Colony, she said.
Fred Willard, director of the center, which is hosting the ongoing gathering today and tomorrow, was no less enthusiastic that the center’s research could be verified with DNA evidence.
“We have the opportunity, with DNA, to scientifically test the hypothesis that we have arrived at on paper,” Willard said Friday. “We might be wrong, but I’m almost positive we are not.”
Using the list of 168 surnames, the center mapped a progression of land ownership from Manteo to Chocowinity. Center leaders said the progression proves the colony’s descendants moved there after disappearing from Manteo between 1587 and 1590. Using DNA, which is collected by cheek swab from people today with those surnames, the center hopes to scientifically prove its hypothesis.
Sheppard was responsible for the paper trail that led the team from Manteo to Chocowinity. Tracing the names of colonist descendants through deeds has proved that progression, she said. Of her first project involving DNA, Sheppard said science can now solidify what she has already established on paper.
“What DNA can do is connect the genealogy and fill in the gaps,” she said. “We know that the Croatan, Hatteras and Mattamuskeet Indians are all the same Indians but at different names; we have proven that progression through deeds. When we can tie the science in with the genealogy, we can certify it.”
The main attraction during the first night of the weekend-long symposium was the “Eleanor Dare Stone.” About the size of a dinner plate, the stone is inscribed on both sides with Old English and is purported to be a message for John White, the colony’s governor, who had returned to England for supplies at the time the colonists vanished.
“There are a lot of questions about its authenticity,” Southerland said. “About 40 others appeared in a year’s time after it was found claiming to be authentic, but they have all been discounted. If this is the real thing, it tells us that the colonists were attacked by Indians,” Southerland said. “But, it does say that some of them survived.”
As to Southerland’s belief in the authenticity of the relic, he calls himself a “healthy skeptic.” Southerland teaches history at Brenau University in Gainesville, Ga., which owns the stone and the 49 others that have proved to be fakes.
“There is some probability that it is authentic, but there is no scientific evidence to prove one way or the other,” he said. “Taken into account with the others, it seems unlikely, but no one has proven that it isn’t.”
Willard said he was on the fence about the stone’s authenticity, but said, “I want it to be real.”
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