Big announcement regarding Antoine Comeau
After analysis of the DNA tests done by male Comeau and Coombs we can now assume that Antoine Comeau, son of Pierre Comeau born about 1661 in Port-Royal is Anthony Coombs, who established himself in Wells, Maine circa 1687 with Louis Allain and married Dorcas Woodin on September 5th, 1688.
Looking at the Y-DNA46 tests from Ancestry, we found by taking the result of the descendant of Jean-Augustin as the baseline test*:
| Test subject |
Details |
| Descendant of Jean-Augustin dit le jeune Comeau |
46 markers tested |
| Descendant of Pierre “l’aîné dit l’Esturgeon” Comeau |
44 identical markers |
| Descendant of Peter Coombs |
46 identicals markers |
| Descendant of Anthony Coombs Jr |
44 identical markers |
| Second Descendant of Anthony Coombs Jr |
43 identical markers |
If we take the test from the descendant of Pierre l’aîné as the baseline test*:
| Test subject |
Details |
| Descendant of Pierre “l’aîné dit l’Esturgeon Comeau |
46 markers tested |
| Descendant of Jean-Augustin dit le jeune Comeau |
44 identical markers |
| Descendant of Peter Coombs |
44 identicals markers |
| Descendant of Anthony Coombs Jr |
44 identical markers |
| Second Descendant of Anthony Coombs Jr |
44 identical markers |
* some markers are different because for one subject, the test couldn’t get a value for the specific marker, thus having no value that could get compared to the other tests.
You can visit this site for some explanation: http://www.smgf.org/pages/ychromosome.jspx
Y-DNA is the DNA that is passed unchanged from father to son, barring possible mutations. That makes this test particularly helpful for surname study. The fact that we have a 46 markers baseline test, making the comparison between two tests much more conclusive than a 12 markers test for example and because we can see that a descendant of Anthony Coombs has a perfect match to a descendant of Pierre Comeau, it is safe to conclude that Anthony Coombs is the son of Pierre Comeau. We can conclude that with what we know about Anthony’s origins, being he came to Wells with Louis Allain in the years that correspond with Antoine Comeau’s dates from the Port-Royal censuses. And some accounts that he was a frenchman who at least knew french.
The relationship between the two surnames is not that farfetched as Comeau is thought to be derived from the word “combe” meaning valley.
I would like to thank Whitney Coombs and the Combs-Coombs &c International DNA Study for their assistance in conducting this study as well as the people who volunteered for the tests. From this point on, an update to the website will start to include Anthony Coombs and his descendants.
