Relatedness and mortality among the Jamestown Colony settlers

This study will test the correspondence of relatedness with mortality risk in the founding population of Jamestown Colony. Previous research on other early colonies suggests that individuals with a higher level of relatedness will have a lower mortality risk. The study will also look at possible correlations of mortality risk with age and social status of the founding population as well as fertility levels of the survivors. Finally, the study will compare the Jamestown Colony with the Plymouth Colony to see if the correspondence of relatedness to mortality risk is a common factor in general among founding populations or only a factor in certain founding populations. This study will examine the hypothesis that individuals in the Jamestown Colony that have a higher level of relatedness will have a lower level of mortality like the Plymouth Colony. A secondary hypothesis to be tested is to determine if, among the survivors, those individuals with relatives would have higher fertility than those individuals that had no relatives.