DAVENPORT KIN CONCERNED WITH DNA THAT DOESN/T MATCH We Pamunkeys, likely other Davenport clans too, have found among us Davenports with solidly proven paper connections whose DNA does not match the clan (Pamunkey) norm. The phenomena is not uncommon, just a matter of known or unknown genetics swept under the rug or passed on in camera by later generations and purposely lost in the shuffle. Currently, there is discourse, accompanied with some hand wringing, occurring among the Frontier Hendricks, a family I worked on a decade or so ago, concerning the lack of DNA agreement among male descendants of Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice President of the United States, under Grover Cleveland (Second Term), with developing Hendricks/Hendrix/Hendrickson lines, particularly with the Frontier Hendricks, descendants of Albertus Hendrickson, a Low Dutch immigrant to Delaware River waters in the 1660s. Thomas A., as to be expected, is the jewel in the Frontier Hendricks crown, but DNA questions have arisen. I spent six months trying to identify Thomas A.'s paternal ancestry before his father and grandfather, both men of Frontier distinction, made trips to both the Library of Congress in DC and to the Indiana State Library in Indianapolis (it was an expenses paid deal). Thomas A. and his promoters did not even dwell on them. Found nothing, even among a myriad of newspaper articles concerning a man who was a Governor, Senator and VP. Here's what I e-mailed the Hendricks DNA Administrator after receiving his circular detailing the problem last week: December 24, 2006 Herb: Don't be surprised about the DNA enigma relative to descendants of Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks not comparing to other Hendricks. Twelve years ago, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find identification of the paternal ancestry of the VP. Despite the fact that his apparent Frontier Hendricks ancestry was prime fodder for political exploitation, the VP (fore and aft of his elections to office, both Governor and Senator before being VP on Grover Cleveland's first ticket) made no statements, offered no identifications relative to his Hendricks ancestry. Instead, in his statements to the Press, he dwelt at length on his mother's family in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, as did his children after his death. His biography in the Library of Congress, taken as SOP for members of the Senate, where he both sat and presided, is silent as to his Hendricks antecedents as are all biographical materials in the Indiana State Library. I ran the search into his children and grandchildren generations--if they knew their Hendricks ancestry before Thomas A.'s grandfather, they did not tell. Hendricks died shortly after taking office as VP, so the Press moved on. He was basically a mill run politician, his principal achievement of note was converting Episcopalian from Presbyterian, attracted no biographers. After my search, I treated him as a Hendricks aberration, likely of bastard birth and so known to himself and his children, hence the misdirection to his mother's family and void of data as to his paternal family. Consider the fact that a candidate for Vice President of the United States offered no biographical material that contained identification of his apparent paternal ancestry, and the Press of that day expressed no curiosity and let him get away with it. Of course, prior to the 1950s, the Vice Presidency was lightly regarded, considered to be of little worth until the sitting President died. Cactus Jack Garner, VP during FDR's first two terms, identified his office as being "worth of a pitcher of warm spit." In order to nail the DNA of those early Westmoreland County, PA, Hendricks, Thomas A's paper genesis, you should have DNA from the lines of Absolem and Daniel, Jr., the brothers of Abraham Davenport. Absolem was last found in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Daniel, Jr.'s descendants were last found in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. I strongly suspect that Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks was not a Hendricks in blood ancestry. But he's credited to the Frontier Hendricks regardless of DNA. John Scott Davenport Holmdel, NJ