New Evidence from YDNA Analysis
The following presents a brief summary of the implication of YDNA results to our European origins. A more complete treatment of the subject can be found in its own section of this site [Click here].Data analysis shows that participants fall into four groups.
Group I -- relatively closely related individuals who among them share a Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) less than about 300-400 years ago. Group I individuals constitute the largest group of closely related American Gossetts thus far identified. No member of this Group appears to be descended from Jean the Huguenot of Jersey Isle.
Group II -- relatively closely related individuals who among them share a MRCA less than 300 years ago. However, members of Group II are not closely related to Group I (there's only a 5% chance that Groups I and II share a MRCA within the past 600 years). No member of this Group appears to be descended from Jean the Huguenot of Jersey Isle. Group II's YDNA difference from Group I, considered along with conventional genealogical research, suggests that Group II descends from different Gossett immigrant than Group I.
Group III -- individuals not closely related to Groups I or II (nor, generally, to one another -- with a few exceptions), but who at least share the R-M269 haplogroup. Since these individuals have the Gosset(t) surname (or phonetically similar surnames, such as Gossick) and R-M269 haplogroup (or one of its subgroups), they are undoubtedly related to one another and to Group I, but the MRCA is quite distant in time (at least 500-1200 years). Let's put it this way: Group III individuals are generally as far from one another as they are from anyone in Groups I or II.
Group IV -- individuals very distant from Groups I, II, or III, and who do not even share the R-M269 haplogroup. No two individuals in Group IV are closely related to each other, nor to any individuals in the other groups. The time to MRCA (between individuals within the Group or between individuals in any other Group) is measured in the thousands of years.
YDNA analyses have yet to find any Gossett in America who could be descended from Jean the Huguenot of Jersey Isle.
We located two Gossets who -- on paper at least -- appear to descend from Jean of Jersey through a prominent great-great-grandson who lived in England in the first half of the 1800s. These two modern descendants are (1) Christopher L. Gosset of the UK and (2) Guillermo Gosset-Lagarda of Mexico. Christopher and Guillermo were tested at the 37-marker level. While both are in haplogroup R-M269, results show that neither is closely related to anyone in our study. In fact, the two are not closely related to each other! According to the paper-trails, their MRCA is a mere 4.5 generations ago. However, their genetic distance is 14. With such genetic distance, there is less than a 0.1% chance that their MRCA is within 16 generations. Clearly, both cannot be descended from Jean of Jersey (b 1642). Is either? We cannot say, though Christopher's paper-lineage, in particular, is quite compelling.
Neither Christopher nor Guillermo is closely related to any project participant. The closest relationship is Guillermo to Sean Brian or Walker in Group II, but there is only a 5% chance that a MRCA is within the most recent 450 years. Jean of Jersey (b 1642) is typically 8 or 9 generations (and 300-350 years) from the birth of any present-day Gossett. The closest Group-I member is a genetic distance of 12 from Christopher and a genetic distance of 13 from Guillermo -- i.e., these two are as far from the rest of us as they are from each other. With the sorts of genetic differences we see between Group-I members and either Christopher or Guillermo, the chance of our MRCA being within the past 9 generations is much less than 0.1% -- well outside the realm of reasonable possibility.
If either Christopher or Guillermo is descended from Jean of Jersey (b 1642), then it is highly improbable that any of the American Gossetts (thus tested) is descended from him.
Results for the large, main group of closely related Group-I Gossetts suggest a common patriarch with d.o.b. of 1640 ± 65 years (i.e., between 1575 and 1705).
This main group includes the Gossetts of SC, and conventional genealogical research discussed elsewhere on this site fairly convincingly suggests that the Gossetts of SC descend from John Gossett and Jane Williamson of New Castle Co., DE. Therefore, a reasonable conclusion is that all the American Gossetts in the main group are likely descended from John of New Castle County, DE. John Gossett of New Castle Co., DE, had three sons (John, William, and James) who could account for the known lines of Group-I American Gossetts that survive to the present.
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