I've been on a roundabout search and had several questions come up as a result. I will post the other main question separately.
Through my research I skated around Wikipedia and ended up on the history of Roanoke Island. Although it is best known as, "The Lost Colony of Roanoke," and following the greatly accepted notion that the settlers were massacred by the indigenous peoples of the area, then there is no explanation for the carving of the word, "Croatoan," that many people believe meant the settlers moved on to Croatoan Island; although there has been no evidence found that could verify this fact. There are also stories of people with European features being seen in native villages. But, according to Wikipedia, there is no hard evidence to prove this as fact either.
Scientists maintain that there is no archaeological evidence to provide definitive proof to solve this mystery or any of the hypotheses that have been put forth through the many years of study, both amateur and scientific.
Added to that we have the mystery of Virginia Dare who was the first English child known to have been born in a New World English Possession, Roanoake Colony. She was born,18 August 1587, her date and place of death is unknown. Checking the profile here, I see she is recorded as having died before 1590 and I'd like to know how that year was determined? There is no comments area on the page so I'll ask here, adding to my question about DNA below. I mention Virginia Dare because we are certain of her place of birth and existence which leads to my question: Does anyone know of any studies that may have found European and Native American DNA with "questionable" origins (meaning unusual branches with occurrences of differing SNPs) in/around that area of North Carolina? And, if Virginia Dare is suspected to have died before 1590 then has any White or Dare DNA project been done that might provide any more information?
My knowledge of DNA is clearly minimal, but being part of the Phelps family DNA project, I have seen the work of others showing the amazing rapidity of the branching and changes in SNPs over very short periods of time, eg. <50 years. Within all these Felps/Phelps DNA changes we have migration as well with spread from England, Albemarle and Baltimore Counties, MD, Caswell, NC, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia. An anomaly in the early 1800s was also discovered with the surname; someone with a verified Y-DNA haplogroup showed up with the name "Pond".
In any case, I realize this is an esoteric post at best, but my background in teaching history always leads me to the truth of the old quotation, "History is a mystery" and in my mind, something that should be examined as such. I believe that genealogy falls directly in line with that thinking, so I follow the clues and ask questions accordingly!