Summary - moved to join a nearby friendly native American tribe, already suggested by others.
There are endless different stories about the lost colony. This explanation sounds simple and compelling (they moved in with a friendly tribe, the Croatoans). Wikipedia [1] discusses this in more detail and points out that there was a smallpox infection that killed a lot of the Croatoans a few years later. I'd think there might be the possibility of genetic testing to connect any present day people with the group from England.
The speculation was the people from England moved to Hatteras Island and joined that tribe, but the original explorer didn't come back for three years and never went to that Island. Hatteras is about 50 miles away, not that far by sailing, especially if you crossed the ocean.
There are endless different stories about the lost colony. This explanation sounds simple and compelling (they moved in with a friendly tribe, the Croatoans). Wikipedia [1] discusses this in more detail and points out that there was a smallpox infection that killed a lot of the Croatoans a few years later. I'd think there might be the possibility of genetic testing to connect any present day people with the group from England.
The speculation was the people from England moved to Hatteras Island and joined that tribe, but the original explorer didn't come back for three years and never went to that Island. Hatteras is about 50 miles away, not that far by sailing, especially if you crossed the ocean.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatan