Documentary of the Week: Will DNA Resolve the Fate of the Lost Colony?

Econintersect:  The first English settlement in North America was on what is now called Roanoke Island in 1587.  The settlement there was 22 years before the first permanent settlement at Jamestown in Virginia.  The fate of the Roanoke Island settlement has been an investigation of archaeologists for more than 100 years.  It vanished from the Roanoke Island site sometime between when they were left there by Captain John White who returned to England for supplies in late 1587 and when he was finally able to return in August 1590.   In 2012 GEI News reported on new developments in the quest for the Lost Colony involving a map that belonged to Capt. White, who was a cartographer and artist.  The picture below is a woodcut by Theodor de Bry based on a watercolor  by Capt. John White.

Click for full, larger picture and access at Wikipedia to other art by Capt. John White.

New developments in the mystery of the Lost Colony may become revealed from DNA of modern day North Carolinians.  One possible link has been identified and that is included in this documentary, which also reviews the known history of the 1587 settlement, including the 400+ year old map that belonged to Capt. John White.

From You Tube:

Josh Bernstein investigates America’s oldest missing person’s case– the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. In 1587, over 100 settlers landed in the New World to build England’s first permanent colony in North America. But, three years later, they had vanished. Did they starve to death? Were they killed by natives? Were there any survivors? Josh travels across two continents to examine the archaeological evidence. He flies high above Roanoke Island in a powered paraglide to scan the terrain; climbs and cores a cypress tree to find out what the climate was like when the colonists disappeared; and conducts a new DNA study that reveals groundbreaking evidence about the fate of the lost settlers.

John Lounsbury

Sources:

• New Clue about Fate of Lost Colony (GEI News, 08 May 2012)

• Roanoke: The Lost Colony (AMAZING LOST HISTORY Documentary) (YouTube, o4 October 2014)