The results are in……… and the myth of the 3 brothers or 5 brothers are just that.
I started my genealogical research journey 37 years ago in October 1976. For 37 years, I have been told that the two Rivers families of Chesterfield County are brothers. Actually, there are several stories of three or fives brothers who came to America.
These stories, myths or family tradition has been passed around from generation to generation. Today, we can put these “old family stories” aside and discard them as they should have been years ago when no proof could be found to substantiate their validity.
Today we have some preliminary DNA evidence that suggests that the progenitor of the Frederick Rivers line and the Isaac Rivers lines, of Chesterfield County, SC, are not related, thus could not be “blood” brothers.
This limited DNA sample of these two lines cast a undefinable probability – that there is no connection between these two lines.
One Frederick Rivers descendant fall into the Haplogroup B which is an African Haplogroup.
One Isaac Rivers descendant fall into the Haplogroup R1b which is a Northern European Haplogroup.
The two charts above are a small portion of the actual DNA sequence for these two lines. The full charts can be viewed at - http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/rivers/results
Keep in mind that the results presented are just a small sample. Additional DNA testing of both lines is necessary to determine if these two samples are a true representation of the two lines.
Regardless, based on these two samples, we know that these two men (Frederick and Isaac RIVERS) DID NOT have the same birth Father up-line – though they could have been raised as brothers.
Twenty years ago I extracted this information from a file while living in Utah. I think it’s time to revisit this file again.
The second statement above “There were two sets of Rivers here who were not related” seems to be confirmed by the DNA results for Frederick and Isaac Rivers.
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[1] http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/rivers/results
Charlie, this is tremendous that you could discover, for once and all, that the myth is just a myth.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have tried for years to get someone from this line to take the DNA test, even offering to pay for the test myself. Now, we need some new testing to further evaluate the findings. Thanks.
ReplyDelete