From: "Strawberry Creek Inn" Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:47:05 -0700 This is Rodney Williams. I ordered the kit for Prince Lake (my 3rd cousin, once removed) in an effort to get more information on my LAKE line. We are of African-American descent, so having the LAKE surname is potentially less meaningful in Prince's case. There is circumstantial evidence that there was a biological relationship between the slaveholding LAKE family and my LAKE ancestors, but so far nothing very convincing. I'm hoping this test will shed some light on the biological origin of that paternal line. That being said, the farthest back we can trace on the LAKE line so far is to our ancestor Henry Lake (born abt 1818 in SC). He is known to have been a slave of Elijah Lake (1768-1824) of Newberry County, SC. Henry was mentioned by name in Elijah's will, which stipulated that ownership of Henry was to pass to Elijah's wife upon his death, and then to his son Ivy Pierce Lake upon her death. For reasons I have yet to uncover, that does not seem to be what happened (I cannot find a slave listed as being owned by either of them who would have been the right age). We also know that by 1870 Henry owned around 200 acres of land in Newberry County. That would have been nearly impossible for a newly emancipated slave unless a former slaveowner (or some other white man) had something to do with it. Although no photos of Henry are known to have survived, one of his son Burr Lake did, and in it he clearly exhibits features of someone with relatively recent white ancestors. Elijah Lake descends from the 'Gravesend' Lakes. I have an autosomal match with a LAKE descendant on 23andMe, but the relationship inferred by the DNA match is much closer than what the relationship would be if I assume Elijah was Henry's biological father. There is another surname match on this person's tree, so it is possible we are related on both branches, or only on the non-LAKE branch. A known descendant of Elijah Lake recently tested on 23andMe, but no match shows up. Under the same assumption as above (Elijah Lake was Henry Lake's father), this person and I would be 4th cousins. Since there is roughly a 50% chance that a 4th cousin relationship would show no autosomal match, this result is also suggestive but not definitive. Rodney Williams From: "Strawberry Creek Inn" Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:51:01 -0700 All of the family trees I've come across have Thomas Lake (1735-1814, Newberry County SC) as Elijah's father. After that there seems to be disagreement. I haven't ever looked very closely myself, but I'm sure if a biological connection is shown I will become much more interested. They all agree that the line traces back to Gravesend and New Jersey. At first glance I didn't see a Thomas fitting that description in your link, nor did I find a mention of anyone migrating to Newberry County, SC. It could be that the assumption that Elijah is descended from the Gravesend/NJ LAKEs is incorrect, perhaps an error propagated in numerous family trees after one person's bad research. Here is one seemingly credible source that traces Elijah to a 'Thomas Lake of New Jersey', although it doesn't go into any detail about previous generations: http://books.google.com/books?id=Er8JVErXNbYC&pg=PA251&lpg=PA251&dq=elijah+l ake+newberry+county+south+carolina&source=bl&ots=xKUiDTwyAS&sig=fJ-1g1IVWQFG Aa_QMq_o2G94vRk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=aQWRT6_dE-ec2QXq4MWJBQ&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBg#v=onepa ge&q=elijah%20lake%20newberry%20county%20south%20carolina&f=false