I thought this was interesting. Maybe we could find out the connection between the English Handley and the Irish and the Hanely. Looks interesting to me. Ann Ron Swezea wrote: > > I received this article from TN-UPPER-CUMBERLAND-L@rootsweb.com and I > wanted to share. > > Now lets connect all many branches of the Hale/Hailes. > > Ron Swezea > > Article in New York Times April 9, 2000: > > > >If Biology Is Ancestry, Are These People Related? By NICHOLAS WADE > > > > The crime scene was bare of clues. Even DNA fingerprinting scored no > hits > >in the databases. The police had no leads. As a last resort, they sent > a > >DNA sample to a private company -- which soon supplied the surname of > the > >man who had left it. > > Science fiction as yet, but the company, Oxford Ancestors, exists and > has > >applied for a patent on the idea of deriving surnames from DNA. Its > >founder, Dr. Bryan Sykes, is a geneticist at the University of Oxford > in > >England who has made an intriguing discovery about English surnames: > many > >of them once had a single bearer. > > Surnames came into use in England between 1250 and 1450, probably in > >connection with the development of inheritable property rights and > trades. > >"The surname acted like documentation a time when they didn't have > forms," > >said Dr. George Redmonds, a historian of place names and surnames. It > is > >not known how many people took the same surname, but those based on > common > >trades, like Smith, may have had many original owners. > > Dr. Sykes, who analyzes DNA to track ancient population changes, > wondered > >if he could trace the origins of his own surname. The word comes from a > > >type of moorland stream used to mark land boundaries. Genealogists > expected > >that as a landscape feature it would have been adopted by many people > in > >search of surnames. Nearly 10,000 Sykeses are registered as voters in > the > >United Kingdom, many near the town of Huddersfield in Yorkshire. > > Dr. Sykes sent out letters to a random sample of his male namesakes, > >asking them to send him cells brushed from the inside cheek on a cotton > > >swab. His interest lay in the subjects' Y chromosomes, which of course > are > >bequeathed from father to son in the same pattern as surnames, except > in > >the case of what geneticists delicately refer to as a "non-paternity > event." > > Unlike the other chromosomes, the Y is transmitted unchanged and would > > >remain identical from the Adams of the human race to all of their sons, > > >except for the rare mutations or accidental changes that accumulate > over > >the centuries. Because each lineage of Y chromosomes carries its own > >signature set of DNA changes, these mutations provide a perfect system > for > >tracking male genealogies, and that is what Dr. Sykes looked for in the > > >cotton swabs mailed back to him. > > Only one DNA signature was common among his namesakes' Y chromosomes, > Dr. > >Sykes reports in the current issue of the American Journal of Human > >Genetics. This means there was only one original Mr. Sykes, at least as > > >reflected in today's population. The first Sykeses on record lived in > the > >13th century in Flockton, Slaithwaite and Saddleworth, three villages > close > >to Huddersfield. > > Sykeses who do not carry the genetic signature have presumably had a > >non-paternity event somewhere in their ancestry. In fact, 50 percent of > the > >modern-day Sykeses did not have the signature. > > Despite appearances, this is a remarkable testimony to the fidelity of > the > >Mrs. Sykeses of past centuries, because it amounts to a non-paternity > rate > >of 1.3 percent per generation. The non-paternity rate in the present > >English population is conjectured to be between 2 percent and 5 > percent. > > From court records, it seems Dr. Sykes's ancestors, at least in the > 14th > >century, were "quite a rough lot -- always being fined for cutting down > > >trees and stealing sheep." > >"Nonetheless," Dr. Sykes said, "their wives were faithful through all > this." > > Asked if he was a true Sykes or an out-of-wedlock Sykes, he replied, > "I'm > >proud to say I have the aboriginal chromosome." > > Sykeses who live in the United States would not necessarily bear the > >original chromosome in the same proportion as their English cousins > because > >the emigrants might not have been a representative sample, Dr. Sykes > said. > > He has analyzed three other surnames in the same way and found that, > as > >with the Sykeses, all can be traced to a single bearer of the family > name. > >Even the ubiquitous Smiths and Clarks might trace their surnames to > just a > >handful of very prolific early ancestors, not the hundreds that might > be > >presumed, Dr. Sykes said. > > This suggests it would be feasible to construct a library of DNA > >signatures linked with English family names. The library could be used > >forensically to provide a surname that matched a DNA sample, and for > >genealogy. > > Dr. Redmonds, the historian, said a library of DNA matched to surnames > > >would be useful in connecting branches of a family that lacked > historical > >records to document their kinship. The library might be of particular > >interest, he said, to Americans of English ancestry seeking to identify > > >their origins; their Y chromosomes might link them directly to the > villages > >where the first bearers of their surnames once lived. > > "Bryan had no interest in genealogy whatsoever before this started," > Dr. > >Redmonds said of his geneticist friend. "When I was able to take him to > the > >precise place in Yorkshire where his ancestors came from, he was > hooked." > > > > ==== HALE Mailing List ==== > To get the most from your query, remember to include all known dates and place names. Type surnames in ALL CAPS for easier reading. > > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/