I won't be able to attend this year's Conference in person, as it conflicts with the Maine Mayflower Society annual meeting. However, I have signed up for it virtually.
I am working with the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD) in an effort to get them to accept and utilize Y-DNA SNP information in membership applications. There are a number of individuals who cannot trace their patrilineal (direct male) line back to the Mayflower passenger, but their Y-DNA falls into a known SUBclade corresponding to SOME (but not all) of the Y-DNA descendants of a Mayflower passenger. I am not using the parent clade which the immigrant himself belongs to as it is quite possible he may have close male relatives (brothers, cousins, etc.) who would fall into the same clade, but not be a Mayflower Descendant.Using a subclade guarantees where the individual MUST descend from the Mayflower passenger (in a patrilineal line).
I am encountering more than a fair bit of resistance in this effort, but I am being persistant, and believe they will accept this eventually. Even their written policies dictate where their lineage verification standards cannot be any more strict than U.S. Court rulings regarding lineage verification. Since the court system has universally accepted DNA evidence, the GSMD own policy manual dictates where they MUST accept DNA evidence as well.
