Thursday, November 15, 2007

More on Descendants of Joseph Smith

DNA tests rule out 2 as Smith descendants

Scientific advances prove no genetic link
By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret Morning News
Published: Saturday, Nov. 10, 2007 12:13 a.m. MST

After more than a century of speculation about whether LDS Church founder Joseph Smith had children with any of his plural wives, a local geneticist said he recently has crossed two such purported descendants off the list of potential candidates.

Ugo Perego, director of operations at the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, told the Deseret Morning News that technological advances in DNA testing during the past couple of years have helped prove with "99.9 percent certainty" that two early Latter-day Saints thought by some to be Smith's children are not his descendants. They are:
• Mosiah Hancock, son of Clarissa Reed Hancock, who was married to Levi Hancock.
• Oliver Buell, son of Prescindia Huntington Buell, who was married to Norman Buell.

Continue reading here: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695226318,00.html

I have a particular interest in Joseph Smith's descendants since his wife is a cousin of mine on several lines of descent.

No comments: