By John Pierce (Group C)

Prior to submitting a DNA sample to the National Geographic Genome Project, I knew my gr(x2)grandfather, Theodore S. Pierce, was born in Hampton, Washington County, NY, but no one in my family had ever gotten beyond him. There was a Shubel Pierce in Hampton, the right age to be Theodore's grandfather, but I couldn't find the missing link. Through research on the Internet, I determined that Shubel had three son's (Amos, Mason, & Shubel, Jr.), but none of them were Theodore's father as their lines seemed to be pretty well documented. I found one little paragraph on a Washington County genealogy website mentioning the family of Shubel Pearce arriving in the late 1790s and listing the children, including mention of a Jesse--but was Jesse male or female and did he or she live to adulthood?
 
Not long after I submitted a DNA sample , I got in touch with Todd who was an exact match except for two markers out of a 67-marker test. He thought if we were any closer we'd be sharing a clothes closet. He was a documented direct descendant of the person I was trying to connect to, Shubel Pearce, via son Amos. Todd provided me with some pages from a family history which his great aunt had written which mentioned Jesse as being Shubel's forth son--but no further details.
 
My great(2)grandfather's eldest son happened to be named Jesse, so I finally thought I was on to something. One day I, while exploring findagrave.com, I decided to try searching for variations of Pierce, such as "Peirce" and "Pearce", and found that someone had posted a memorial including gravestone photos for Shubel Pearce, buried at the Brick Church Cemetery in Hampton, NY, my gr(x2)grandfather's birthplace. I asked the submitter if he could return to the cemetery and look for adjoining graves, and to be on the lookout for a Jesse Pearce. A day later he reported back that next to Shubel and wife was a stone for Jesse Pearce, d. 1830 at age 32, two years after the birth of my gr(x2)grandfather.
 
Just recently, I got in touch with another direct descendant of Shubel (thanks to findagrave) who had a list of family members and birthdates, probably copied long ago from a family bible. It included son Jesse and his exact birthdate, August 5, 1798.
 
I believe Jesse is the piece of the puzzle that connects me back to Capt. Michael Pearce. Everything fell into place.

This DNA Project's Goals

Identify other Pierces who are related.

Validate existing traditional research.

Break down brick walls in your Pierce family research.

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