Investigations into the fate of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke have continued over the centuries, but no one has come up with a satisfactory answer. “Croatoan” was the name of an island south of Roanoke that was home to a Native American tribe of the same name. Perhaps, then, the colonists were killed or abducted by Native Americans.
Other hypotheses hold that they tried to sail back to England on their own and got lost at sea, that they met a bloody end at the hands of Spaniards who had marched up from Florida or that they moved further inland and were absorbed into a friendly tribe.
In 2007, efforts began to collect and analyze DNA from local families to figure out if they’re related to the Roanoke settlers, local Native American tribes or both. Despite the lingering mystery, it seems there’s one thing to be thankful for: The lessons learned at Roanoke may have helped the next group of English settlers, who would found their own colony 17 years later just a short distance to the north, at Jamestown.
History.com Oct. 2, 2012
Behind this bland recitation of the mystery lies a lot of opportunity for detective-like thinking, and narrowing down options. For example, seaworthy ships didn’t grow on the trees of the New World, food barely did. Yes, with severe drought conditions the settlers would have had a tough roe to hoe (literally and figuratively), thus a temptation to return to civilization as they knew it. But using what for transportation? These settlers would have known enough of the Atlantic voyage not to set out in rowboats…or so one would hope. Could they have built a truly seaworthy vessel? Well, perhaps, but that doesn’t seem all that likely.
But assimilation into exciting societies under starvation conditions makes some common sense. The DNA testing is promising, and we are searching for state-of-the-art results.
You might call this the ultimate “Ancestry.com” test.. Will turn out to be a large part of the answer?
