John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
Hello, all!
My life-long obsession with genealogy has led me here.My paternal grandmother's family name is Mayne, and her brother and his son have each had comprehensive Y-DNA and mt-DNA analysis performed, at my request and expense, through two independent companies with completely different laboratories, as I wanted to make sure I was getting similar, if not identical, results, from more than one company (sort of like a second opinion from another doctor).I am a direct descendant of Ezekiel Mayne of Scituate, and (plausibly) a descendant of his attributed father, John, of Casco Bay, Maine, then of Boston, Massachusetts.
Based on Y-DNA testing through the male members of my grandmother's family carry the R1B1B2A1B subclade/haplotype, but the geographical likelihood does NOT point in the direction of the U.K., but to Belgium.Perhaps we have been accepting British origins, having trusted research that is less than bullet-proof;this is not designed to denigrate anyone's hard work and hours of devoted study to our family's origins, but to shine a new light with results based not just on speculative attribution and spurious "research" (where is the proof that John Mayne crossed the Atlantic on "The Beaver of London" ship?Where is the proof that Ezekiel is indeed the son of John?And, why do we assume that this Mayne family came from Devon, or indeed England, at all?)
In my honest, humble opinion, which can be backed up by DNA evidence strongly suggesting geographical origin, the American, colonial Mayne family were originally of Walloon (French-speaking Belgian) ancestry.Perhaps they fled to England during the sixteenth century to escape religious persecution, as many of them were Protestants, not Roman Catholics.Perhaps there is NO documentation at all, and John and/or Ezekiel simply "slipped through the cracks." We may never know, BUT we cannot ignore Y-DNA results, nor can one dispute the fact that "Mayne" (with or without an accent aigu on the letter 'e') is a common surname throughout southern Belgium (Wallonia), and northern France.
A quick Google search for "Belgian White Pages" will lead you to where you can see for yourselves just how often this name appears.It goes back many centuries there. Another fantastic resource is familienname.be, where one can "plug in" the surname, and the site will show the geographical distribution of the name.Familysearch.org also will confirm that there have been Mayne families ensconced there for ages, particularly in Brabant.
In any case, I know this post will arouse some fury from ardent believers that the family's beginnings were in Britain, but until now, I have been dissatisfied with accepting the stories I've read/heard, as have my old-timer relatives who graciously submitted their DNA specimens.
Thanks for reading, and I do hope that nobody's too upset with my post!
Cheers, and happy hunting for the truth,
Bob G.
More Replies:
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
alexander mc manus 4/01/12
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
Mac Main 1/21/11
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
Mac Main 12/07/09
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
Phillip Maine 11/26/09
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
john Mains 12/02/09
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
Marcie Davies 1/08/10
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoveries.
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoverie
Bob Gagne 9/13/09
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoverie
Phillip Maine 12/03/09
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoverie
Bob Gagne 12/03/09
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoverie
john Mains 12/03/09
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoverie
Phillip Maine 12/04/09
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoverie
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoverie
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Re: John Mayne of Casco Bay, and Ezekiel of Stonington -- interesting discoverie