IMPORTANT QUESTION: Is anyone here a direct male-line descendant of Joseph Smith or a direct male-line descendant of one of Joseph's wives?

If you are, or if you know someone who is, please let me know (PM, or comment here). Some of us are thinking of trying to do some genetic analysis of Joseph Smith and his potential polygamous descendants. No study has yet shown that Joseph had any descendants through his polygamous wives. So far, though, the church (or organizations tied to the church) have had a monopoly on studying these issues. It's time some independent voices start examining the evidence as well!

The idea is that we would use one of the many (relatively) cheap direct-to-consumer genetic analysis firms to sample your genome. We would arrange for donations so there will be no cost to you. Once we get your data back, we can look at it to determine whether you are a descendant of Joseph Smith from one of his polygamous wives.

We need descendants of Joseph and Emma (so we can get a baseline to determine the makeup of Joseph's Y chromosome) and descendants of women who were Joseph's polygamous wives.

Speak up, and help us use this large community to do some (amateur) science!

I don't know of any male decendents of Joseph with the other women -- Josephina is the most likely of his offspring but being female that's kind of hard to prove.

I knew a guy I used to work and play basketball with (here in Cali) that claimed he was a descendant of Joseph Smith. He isn't Mormon but his last name is Smith interestingly enough. That however doesn't prove anything since Smith is a common last name.

In my mind he sort of resembled the paintings of Joseph Smith but is hard to judge since it really isn't known what Joseph Smith actually looked like since the church likes to morph their main characters into blond haired and blue eyed heroes.

This probably doesn't help much but maybe I can put you in contact with him.

I roomed with another missionary on my mission, he wasn't a companion, but his name was Elder Smith, and he confirmed he was direct patriarchal lineage back to Hyrum Smith and of course Joseph Smith Sr. He was a red head, and looked just the part too.

I would have no idea how to find him and I don't recall his first name.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2012 12:59PM by Mormoney.

If anyone has a good possibility I can be contacted at:

https://www.facebook.com/david.borrego.10

What information would you need? My wife still works with him so I can probably get you his email address. I don't have facebook though.

I think my husband is related to Joseph Smith Sr. Would that work?

My husband is named in the Shumaway Family History book.

Here is my email for those that are not on fb.

magnat22@yahoo.com

Please give any information and those that are doing the study will determine whether it is useful or not.


Thanks for your help!

You can search, and find which lines have the most descendants, and ask them to participate.

Also, you will likely have better odds of finding one with the RLDS, and ex-RLDS. They may have done their own DNA studies too.

Check the DNA projects for the surname Smith. A descendant may have already participated in a study.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2012 01:54PM by atheist&happy:-).

I'm interested to see if you are able to use any of the research done by Ugo Perego, who was supposedly "authorized" by the church to find Smith's descendants.

Then up and moved to Italy (following the DNA? Or fleeing the Mormob?)

Anagrammy

You might try the Community of Christ. Ema Smith, and most of Joe's children went with that break off group. I don't think any of Joe's children, at least the ones he had through Ema, went west with Brigham Young. As bad as things were, it would also not be surprising if Brigham Young had any children that he suspected of being fathered by Joe Smith, quietly killed off, and their names removed from all official records and history.

DNA.... The three little letters that make the top dogs cringe.

Return and report, please.

you may want to try the community of christ. formerly known as RLDS.

no really. i've emailed them before and i had the chance to talk a direct descendant of smith and emma. at that time she was an apostle of that organization. i don't want to say they are the friendliest people on the planet but definitely they are more accessible than the utah mormon CEOs.

RLDS apostles seem very open and they might give you their pedigree. who knows.

Hang on a sec. I'm pretty sure I heard my grandpa say that we are somehow related to JS. It might be a distant, convoluted relation, though. I'll see what I can find out.