The Thrasher Jubilee
This last weekend I attended the Thrasher Jubilee in Frederick County, Maryland. This was a reunion of several families: the descendants of Benjamin Thrasher who died in Maryland ca 1740, the descendants of John Thrasher who purchased land in Goochland Co., VA in 1738, the descendants of James Lee, a neighbor of the aforementioned Benjamin Thrasher, and several other unrelated Thrasher families. With this mix, it seemed appropriate to call it a jubilee.
This is a photo of the picnic dinner on Saturday night on the Thomas Thrasher farm near Jefferson, MD. This farm dates back to about 1750 and still is in the Thrasher family. Some people are eating, some are talking, and some are wandering around. It is not a great picture from a photo composition perspective. Too confused. However it captures the feel of the event.
Labels: genealogy
posted by James Moule @ 12:02 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Jim,
Did you learn anything new on the families you didn't know before? My wife has been asked for years to attend her family reunion in the San Antonio, TX area. I've often wondered if anyone there would be interested in what you and I have spent years accumulating. Just a musing thought. Wonder as well if anyone attending even cares? After all, it's about food, fun, family, friendship, etc. I think the Jubilee is a good descriptive for the event. SOI
There was more than enough food, family, and friendship. However, I did learn more than I expected.
There was an excellent presentation on the use of DNA tests in general and the results regarding the Thrasher familes in particular. The surprise there is this: All the other Thrasher families are haplogroup type R1B - a common European type. They are different enough that the common ancestor is probably prior to emigration to America. The descendants of Benjamin Thrasher d. 1740 are all very different - type E3B, typical of North Africa.
(Nancy Thrasher Cherry was a little shaken up by this. After all, she had invited the Southern Thrashers and the Confederate flag was flying in their honor. I suggested that she promote the Roman soldier hypothesis. Many of the Roman solders that invaded Britain came from Rome's colonies in Africa and the Middle East.)
We also had a good talk from he head of the Maryland room in the Frederick Library. There are some new indexes to original Maryland documents that are new to me. When I visited the library I found references to dozens of colonial records that I need to follow up on.
Last surprise: everybody thinks that I am the expert on the Maryland Thrasher family and wanted copies of my family group sheets.
The DNA Testing is an intriguing concept I know virtually nothing about. How did they acquire DNA from the deceased individuals, or did they at all? Is there a repository of DNA information your speaker drew from, or did he gather the data through his own research?
News Flash...you are the expert on the Thrasher Family! Who else has researched them for over 35 years, hmm? The Thrasher Research Team (that's you) has been going unnoticed for too long. See what attending this Jubilee has done to you now? Your life will never be the same with all the interest you have generated. More new Christmas cards to read...and send. SOI
The major application of DNA to genealogical research relies on the fact that the Y chromosome does not change when a male chlld is born (except for a possible pesky mutation that may occur every hundred years or so). Thus the sons of sons of sons etc. will all have the same Y chromosome.
So, collecting DNA samples of living males and comparing them will show whether they have the same ancestry on the male side.
So far, DNA samples have been taken from about 60 Thrasher males.
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I do not know what to do about IE compatibility problems. Google has control over the way the blog works, Maybe I will try using Chrome for postings in the future.
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