Researchers
In 2012, researchers with the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum announced they had found a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.
“If we were finding this evidence at Roanoke Island, which is the well-established site of Sir Walter Raleigh’s colony, we would have no hesitation to say this is evidence of Sir Walter Raleigh’s colonies,” said Phil Evans, president of the First Colony Foundation. “But because this is a new site and not associated with Sir Walter Raleigh, we have to hesitate and ask questions and learn more. It’s not Roanoke Island. It’s a new thing, and a new thing has to stand some tests.”
That clue on a map led foundation researchers back to a site where they had previously found artifacts years ago. More recent digs found more artifacts that appear to be of the correct time period.
North Carolina Lost Colony – John White’s “La Virginea Pars” map with secret marking© The Trustees of the British Museum
According to History:
Investigations into the fate of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke have continued over the centuries, but no one has come up with a satisfactory answer. “Croatoan” was the name of an island south of Roanoke that was home to a Native American tribe of the same name. Perhaps, then, the colonists were killed or abducted by Native Americans. Other hypotheses hold that they tried to sail back to England on their own and got lost at sea, that they met a bloody end at the hands of Spaniards who had marched up from Florida or that they moved further inland and were absorbed into a friendly tribe. In 2007, efforts began to collect and analyze DNA from local families to figure out if they’re related to the Roanoke settlers, local Native American tribes or both. Despite the lingering mystery, it seems there’s one thing to be thankful for: The lessons learned at Roanoke may have helped the next group of English settlers, who would found their own colony 17 years later just a short distance to the north, at Jamestown.
Source:
North Carolina Lost Colony
http://www.wral.com/researchers-hopeful-that-nc-site-is-that-of-lost-colony/14368163/
North Carolina Lost Colony
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/north-carolina-lost-colony-map-clue/2015/01/20/id/619683/
Has anyone watched the recent TV series “America Unearthed”? Evidently quite a number of stones were found during the depression with writings on them referring to this event. The forensic geologist has examined these stones and definitely found that they definitely had signs of being centuries old. I am very much interested in this story.
I am interested in the Indian tribe that lived there before Sir Walter Raleigh lead the English expedition to Roanoke Island. In my ancestry information it calls the lady: Native Indian Maiden Croatoan. I have not been able to locate any name for her. She married one of my ancestors — John Brooks. I am interested in trying to find out what her name is. She died in Kentucky so I no they moved from Roanoke.
Hello Ben. I am also a descendant of John Brooks and the Indian Maiden. Doing some research on Roanoke and found your post. How do you know she died in Kentucky? I haven’t found that. Do you have any information on her children? I too am trying to find more info on her. Are you involved in the Lost Colony DNA project?
We talked about this in my college history class. Our class guesses was that there was a
Native American attack but also some of the students guessed that maybe the
colonists sailed off to sea. The colonists were living a new lifestyle that was extremely
different from their original England lifestyle. So we theorized that perhaps the colonists panicked about living alone in the colony and some tried to sail back to Europe or find a better place in Native America that would suit their old lifestyle more. Maybe they got caught in a storm and drowned which could explain why new settlers could not find any dead bodies in the vacant village, because all of the bodies are lost at sea. It is fascinating that our technology is advancing rapidly and that we might possibly be able to answer questions that we have long been trying to answer. Especially one that involves a huge part of American History.