Archaeologist pursued 30-year curiosity about Jamestown

In the Picayune Item (Picayune MS)/Associated Press, there is an article about an archaeologist with a 30 year old dream – finding the Jamestown colony, which many believed had been washed away into the James River. Luckily he stayed at it and ignored those who believed it was gone.

Excerpts:

William Kelso has a knack for finding things that others pass by – such as the remains of the Jamestown colony, which is enabling two continents to refine their histories.

The discovery of Jamestown’s fort, and hundreds of thousands of 17th century artifacts, sprang from Kelso’s curiosity as a graduate history student in the 1960s.
……….
Kelso began work alone with a shovel in April 1994, and within an hour was finding artifacts. Since then, he and a team have found the entire outline of the triangular fort that was built in 1607. Among major discoveries was a skeleton believed to belong to one of the colony’s founders, Bartholomew Gosnold, although the identity could not be proved through DNA tests.

The scientists’ work has led to a clearer picture of life in the colony, and perhaps can shed more light on the settlers’ relationship with the native Indians.

Besides the “WOW” factor of finding it, it brings up an interesting aspect – DNA testing. The testing combined with genealogy research could lead to a lot more interesting finds in the future.

via Family Research

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