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The first accomplishment of the Pace DNA study
was to settle the question of the ancestry of John Pace - Middlesex Co. VA. - latter 1600s
   by Roy Johnson - DNA Coordinator

DNA proved that he was not related to
the Virginia and North Carolina Paces descending from Richard of Jamestown.

Further evidence was found
when Gordon T Pace of Canada matched 25/25 with John of Middlesex descendents,
and in the 37 marker test

FTDNA estimates that there is an 85% chance
the common ancestor of Gordon and 6379 occurred less than 350 years ago.
  • Since John of Middlesex and Gordon’s ancestor George Pace
    were contemporaries and were adults 300 years ago
  • that means there is an 85% chance according to the DNA results
    that the common ancestor was their father.

But DNA can only point, it cannot prove,
and one of its most important functions is to point to sources that need to be checked.

Gordon T Pace did this and found the following

    (shown in the chart on the left)
    in the English Parish Records

    while the Christchurch records in America
    are shown in the chart on the right

It takes only a glance at this information
to see that the parish records support the DNA evidence.  Five matching given names in the two families (and in the same order except George and Joseph) are too much to be coincidence. (Parish records have Jane; John's will has Joane, a difference of spelling only.) The names JOSEPH and MARGARET are the given names of the parents of John and George in England. John of Middlesex must be John of Shropshire, brother to George Pace.

In addition,
John of Shropshire disappears from the parish records of that locale after his Christening, giving added strength to the supposition that he emigrated and was indeed John of Middlesex. Had he married or died in Shropshire there would be records. Also he is just the right age.He would be 27 in 1693 the date of John of M's land purchase.

And if this isn’t enough,
Gordon has tracked other Shropshire names such as  Barnett, Picken, Cotterell, Harrison, Maddocks/Maddox, Groom and other surnames, and found them in the precise areas of Virginia where John and his descendents are found, but less often in the other areas. Since families often migrated together, this tends to support the Shropshire origins of John of Middlesex.

It should be emphasized
that it was documentation that finally provided the above evidence; DNA alone cannot do it.  Gordon’s documented ancestry from George, and the documented ancestry of the other submitters to John of Middlesex, are the cords that linked the DNA evidence together.

John of Middlesex page - HOME Page