Alexander M. Coffin - DNA for Ancestry

Deborah,

Yes I remember the mysterious Peter Coffin.
Sorry but I don't know of anyone in the family who has done a DNA.

I'd say it's safe to assume he was a Coffin. The entire clan originates from
Tristram Coffin, Sr. and Dionis Coffin (Stevens) so I'm not sure what the DNA gets you (?)

I would guess he was Alexander Coffin, Jrs., brother, or cousin.
(DNA Check with NZ Coffins by Alexander Coffin, Jr? http://coffinnz.blogspot.com/)

Both Alexander and Peter being from Dutchess County, NY., its safe to assume they were Quakers, check Quaker records, who were good record keepers.

Dave Coffin

examples;

http://www.cyndislist.com/quaker/records/

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/browse?type=lcsubc...

Yes there is one match in the tree that lists Tristram Coffin in his paper tree...I will do some more work on this and let you know how I get on. Thanks for responding! Deborah

I meant there is a tree that belongs to a DNA match that has Tristram as an ancestor.

Another thought...in your research did you come across the Peter Coffin based in Great Barrier who may have had a son Willie Coffin? Willie Coffin married the Great Grandaughter of Chief Mapi, her name was Terewa...

I have never looked into DNA, don't know what can be accomplished with it.
I never really looked carefully at Peter, just Alexander Jr.
I have cleaned up my notes on Jr's page a little,
let me know what we have on Peter.
The only Peter I saw that could be a hit was listed as lost at sea...
where he was from, where reported lost I never looked into.

Private

Hi I am a descendant of the Coffin family, Lillian Coffin my G. Grandmother was born in NZ, but her father Alexander Coffin migrated to NZ from Nantucket Island b.1784, wife Lucinda Weeks b1785 Nantucket. I find this really exciting. I would love to join the dots here back to Tristram Coffin. As my mother named a horse after Tristram as it was her family name. Now I know why. Bathurst was another name who married a Coffin also. Of which my mother named her horse stud, Bathurst. So I know I am on the right track here. Look forward to meeting some cousins. Or something else.

Peter and Tristram Coffin were both founders of Nantucket Island, where they had a group of investors. There is an historical article of the Island and how it all started. Peter may well have got lost at sea, as there was a whaling depot set up there. Apparently, this is where the Moby Dick story derived from. Fascinating. Google Nantucket Island.

Welcome aboard Cousin!

So nice to meet you.

I have to apologize, You sort of walked into a disconnected conversation.
(previous conversations were a year or so ago?)

Then we were talking about Private (your GGGranfather?) and a Peter Coffin who arrived in New Zealand in 1840, by the process of elimination I think I have Alexanders parents (but it's not provable) and now we were talking about tracking down his traveling companion Peter Coffin.

The only things known about this "Mysterious Peter Coffin", is that he was a whaler traveling with Alexander and was from Dutchess County, New York State. He did not give us much to go on. ;<

Your information sounds different than mine on Alexander, I would absolutely love to hear the info you have on Alexander and his/your family.
(A lot of what I have is just assumptions and guesses)

At this point to link back to Tristram Coffin, Sr. (and the Coffin's back to William the Conqueror) Is pretty simple just link your tree to Lillian ( after you confirm shes yours) Here:
Lillian Frances Reeve

Your the first of Lillian's GGrandkids on Geni that I know of. I'm hoping you can add a bunch of the New Zealand Coffin Clan, been waiting and waiting for someone like you to show up here.

Cheers
Dave Coffin

(Here are some links to some of what we have been working on.)

Private

http://www.geni.com/projects/Nantucket-Island/207

http://www.geni.com/projects/Starbuck-Coffin-Family/108

http://www.geni.com/projects/Nantucket-Founding-families/23842

http://www.geni.com/projects/New-Zealand-Pioneer-Families-1800-1900...

http://www.geni.com/projects/Whaling/14867

Our (Dutchess County, NY) Peter Coffin had a baby in 1839 with a Maori woman named Kanuku in Whangaroa...they married in 1841 in Kerikeri ceremony was conducted by Reverand Rick Taylor and Witnessed by James Kemp.

OK, I just looked these locations up, in 1839 Peter is in Whangaroa on the North Island and in 1840 Alexander is in Timaru on the South Island.

I've gots lots of questions
Who told me these two were friends?
Any evidence of this? I thought they were in the whaling station together.
At some point I was told they were traveling together, am I missing something?
Is there a connection except for same last name?
Any record of Alexander at the wedding/mission?
Do we have anything else from wedding? Peters age?
Any idea of who the child was?
looks like Richard Taylor and James Kemp were famous pioneer missionaries. ( I'm hampered by lack of NZ knowledge)

(just kibitzing as a Coffin family curator & cousin via Starbuck)

This is really exciting. Coffins circling the globe! They are a very interesting family -- David has collected some great stories.

There have to be DNA projects & matches, there are a lot of Coffins.

Tagging

Roland Henry Baker, III for DNA expertise
Charlene Newport for New Zealand knowledge

Apparently Peter Coffin also had a child to his wife, called Sarah, perhaps BDM could help with this mystery. Registered at Kerikeri. Northland. NZ.

Very interesting story! So was Peter also born about 1810 making him a potential brother of Alexander M Coffin then?

Normal Y 37-STR marker DNA testing won’t give you the resolution to tell you if male descendants of Peter and Alexander are related to a specific ancestor 100 years ago or 1000 years ago. But they would tell you if they are related somewhere in this range and the test is relatively cheap at around $100 when on sales around father’s day. A 67-STR marker test would get the range down a bit. But at least you could tell if it was the same or a completely different line of Coffins. If the results didn’t match at all than at least you would know they were from two separate families. A Full sequence like BigY or FullGenomes Y would give you the most accurate results but this would run about $500 per person.

Comparing autosomal results from the closest descendants possible would be very interesting. But this far back we can only probably say they were cousins but not what level of cousins.

I was under the mistaken impression that these guys were traveling/working together. They were actually on different islands leading separate lives. I suspect they did not even know each other in 1840.

I need to look into the Peter Coffin who is listed as lost at sea more carefully.

both Alexander and Peter are Coffins from the USA.
All the Coffins in the US have a common ancestor.
So these 2 are only seperated by 6-8 generations at most, and probably much less.

Alexander has no know siblings.

I have all paper copies of Peter Coffin and Kanuku's wedding in Kerikeri, and entry of baptism for Sarah Coffin (Ere Kawhena). The article that mentioned Alexander and Peter being contemporaries was from a Coffin Family Newsletter dated 1987, I've encluded a link to a discussion about it from 2002 http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/coffin/1643/

Our DNA tester has tested to the 67 Marker, but I don't think it would help to connect to Peter Coffin as I thought the Y-DNA test was only useful for a father to father line? Our Peter Coffin dropped off the (genealogy) radar after 1841, he was listed as a sawyer on the marriage entry. I did find a Peter Coffin living on Great Barrier Island with a Maori wife but have found no solid evidence that he is the same Peter Coffin as the Whangaroa one. It's been 7 years searching, I'm not giving up though! Hah!

That's correct - Y testing will only work via father to father line.

Deborah
Where the Dutchess County NY tie came from?
---No Peter Coffin in Dutchess Co 1820 or 1830 Census

Hi David, It is written on Peter Coffin and Kanuku's marriage entry...that's the frustrating thing, I've rang the Historical Society in Poughkeepsie and they couldn't find him either.

The Quakers moved a lot. Many that went to Upstate NY, went there to avoid war (Revolution then The War of 1812) Upstate NY is poor farming country, In 1814 good farm land opened up out west and Quakers from all over started moving to Ohio and Indiana (sometimes en masse). Particularly from slave states (NY was a slave state) The Quakers were excellent record keepers, but when the entire congregation moved, they took the records with them, so the records were/are quite scattered., and some were lost.

There is probably a record of Peter's birth somewhere, in longhand, in some meeting house record. Finding it... tough, knowing its actually him, pretty impossible.

http://www.americanancestors.org/education/learning-resources/read/...

http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/7662...

http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mygermanfamilies/Qua...

Sad thing is I lived in the States for 2 years in New Hampshire (long time prior to catching the genealogy bug) I was so close to the source! Nevermind

Unfortunately Peter is a very common name, with out a DOB or parents name(s), you would never know if you had the right one.

Exactly! Oh dear...I now have 13 separate Coffin DNA matches all from Nantucket, all with Tristram Coffin at the top of their trees, but none are related by close 1 or 2 generation matches...very difficult. Thanks David, Roland and Erica for all your helpful hints.

So one day we'll identify his likely family by process of elimination.

Think about building all the Coffin families in upstate NY I'm that time frame. One of them will have a son gone missing.

So who was chief Mapi, all the pertinent details please.
Links are great.
Why is the husband of his gggranddaughter significant?

Thanks

Roland

Is there a FAQ. Covering genetic testing results on geni?
Uploads, matching etc (im clueless)

Dave

Dave,

Right now there is not a FAQ covering these topics but we’re working on it.

We do have both Y DNA and mtDNA projects. So if you know your haplogroup you can join the project for that haplogroup. If your terminal haplogroup doesn’t have a project page yet contact me and I will create a project for that haplogroup. Then you can add profiles with that haplogroup to the project. We also post haplogroup s in the discussion section of profiles of our ancestors. If your profile is public I recommend putting your DNA results on your profile in the about section so people can find them such as where you tested, GEDMATCH Kit # and haplogroup s, etc. We can also create projects ad hoc to list GEDMATCH kits or haplogroup s for the descendants of a certain ancestor if it will help sort out suspect lineages.

I am hopeful that soon GENI will integrate a method to enter genetic testing data and allow it to propagate up the tree automatically. In the meantime DNA.Land does have a way to link your DNA results to your profile on GENI.