DNA shows Joseph Smith was Irish
By Michael De Groote
Mormon Times
Friday, Aug. 08, 2008
SANDY, Utah -- DNA research into Joseph Smith Jr.'s genealogy has turned up a surprise, according to Ugo Perego, director of operations at the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation: A rare DNA marker shows that the assumption Smith's family line came from England is probably wrong.
The Smiths were Irish.
...
Mosiah L. Hancock was not his child either.
Using other DNA tests, Perego also hopes to determine whether Josephine Rosetta Lyon is a daughter of Joseph Smith. So far he has collected 120 DNA samples from her descendants. He says they should know in the "next year or so."
"My testimony of Joseph Smith has absolutely nothing to do with to what extent he practiced polygamy," Perego said. "But there is an interesting situation in which there are literally thousands of people descended of these individuals that are wondering, based on what has been written, whether or not they are descendants of Joseph Smith, and so here you have a chance to tell these people how things are."
Whether Joseph fathered some of the other children on the list may never be known, because some of them died too young to have any children themselves. "I'm not really in the business of going around and digging up graves and testing," Perego said.
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