D. Michael Strong Family DNA results

             I am listing my DNA results used to determine ancestry. This is becoming a more common technology in searching patterns when paper records are not available. Of course I was interested in the Native American connection in our family and Catherine Butler. According to the oral history that I got from Cleo Strong, my Dad's sister,  Catherine was the daughter of a Maidu woman and a Spanish raider whose group killed the males in the tribe and kidnapped the women. We have found records of Catherine (Brown?) and her marriage to James Butler in Mariposa, CA in September 1867. Of course, 5 of their 6 children had been born by that time but the Catholic Church wasn’t built until about then so I am assuming that James, being Catholic, wanted to be married in the Church. Edward, Agnes’ father, was born in 1866 and died in Edwall in 1890 of TB. We found his grave as well as his father’s in Sprague WA. Catherine was not listed but I spoke with the historian at the Catholic Church and Catherine is listed there as buried next to James, so we have added her name to the gravestone.

            I have been exchanging information with the Moomaw family who have also been researching the Butler family. Ellen Butler, the eldest child in the family, married Samuel Truman Moomaw in Pendleton Or in 1881, on their way to Edwall. We were both interested in the Native American ancestry and submitted our DNA for analysis. The results for both of us was a bit surprising in that we had twice as much native American DNA than expected. This confirms that Catherine was actually 100% Native and that her father was a Native. I suspect that he was part of the Spanish raiding party. I expected that I was 1/32 Native American but these results put me at 1/16.There is an error rate of 0.56%. Ted Moomaw also was more than expected.

            The other information of interest is that the tribal origin seems to be Mayan (Ted got the same result). It may be that Catherine’s tribe migrated north over time and came from either central America or Columbia as suggested from the attached map. The Middle East result was another surprise but there seems to be a high percentage of people in the studies who have this admixture and, of course, we all come from this part of the world if you go back far enough. 
Having now documented the Strong lineage back to England through Elder John Strong, the first Strong in the Americas in 1630.

        " John Strong (Elder) born in Taunton, England in 1605 whence he removed to London afterwards to Plymouth.Having strong Puritan sympathies he sailed from Plymouth for the New World Mar 20 1630 in company with 140 persons, in the ship Mary & John, and arrived at Nantucket, Massachussetts (Hull) after a passage of 70 days (Sunday, May 30, 1630).   After searching for a suitable place in which to settle, they decided upon the spot which they called Dorechester from their dear home in England, which many of them had left. In 1635 after having assisted in founding and developing the town of Dorchester, John Strong removed to Hingham, Mass and in 1636 took the freeman's oath at Boston. From there he removed to Taunton, and Plymouth, after which he was appointed one to settle Windsor, Connecticut. In 1659 he removed to Northampton, Mass.. Here he lived forty years and was a leading man in the affairs of town and church. He was a tanner by trade and a prosperous business man, His tannery was located in what is now the Southwest Corner of Market and Main Streets.

In 1630 he married (2nd marriage) Abigail Ford of Dorchester with whom he lived 58 years.   She died the mother of 16 children, aged 80.   He died April 14, 1699 aged 94. He had up to the time of his death 160 descendants. 18 children, 15 of whom had families. 114 grandchildren and 33 great grandchildren."

  

Below are my DNA results

Continent (Subcontinent)	Population	Percentage	Margin of Error
Europe (Western European)	Orcadian	82.67%	±2.65%
Native American	Columbian, Mayan	8.00%	±0.56%
Middle East	Druze, Iranian, Jewish, Palestinian, Adygei, Bedouin, Bedouin South	9.34%	±2.97%