Success Stories
By J. Mark Pierce (Group K)
My journey began in 2006 when I participated in National Geographic's "Genographic Project", by simply scraping the inside of my mouth with a swap, and returning it to them. At first I only had the 12 marker test done. (I've now done the more definitive 37 marker test) Their website, then prompted me to cross reference my DNA results with other Pierces, one of which was the Pierce Northern DNA website. (How easy is that!)
By Elizabeth Pearce (Group F - Pierce DNA Project South )
My success story was pretty significant. Thanks to the help of people I met through the Pierce DNA study, I was able to trace my branch of the Pearce family back to George Pearce, a blacksmith who was born in Bristol, England in 1640. He bought land in Lancaster County, VA and moved there with his family in 1664. Many thanks for all the invaluable help.
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?
By Charles Pierce (From Group Z - Pierce DNA Project South)
I'm glad I did the DNA. I have found a match, back thru my Great Grandfather which is back to 1789 and Jacob Pierce. I'm in the process of trying to find a male descendant from Jacob's father John Pierce and I'm getting close thru Jacob's brother William Pierce. What I like about DNA is it takes out the guess work and keeps you on the right track, tells you if you match someone, and also helps if you are looking for Native American info.