Hello and Merry Christmas! I just wanted to let the lists know that I have contacted all of our project participants to let them know that self-test kits will begin mailing the end of January. I am making the final arrangements with the lab (Relative Genetics) at this point and just waiting for confirmation from them. Relative Genetics will be testing 14 Ycs (chromosome) markers. This is 2 more than any other family DNA project I have seen. In other words, they have identified 2 additional signatures on the Y-chromosome that can now be tested. This ups the accuracy a good deal as the more markers that can be checked and correlated the better. We've managed to sign up 22 (two tentatively being added just today!) participants to date. Of this number, some represent uncorrelated or unassociated lines- meaning that there is no known connection to any of our early Payne lines in either Virginia, Maryland or Massachusetts for example. For this group, the benefit of the testing will be to attempt to provide a connection to one of these lines through the other test participants. This should help them in tracing their genealogy further by pointing them to the family they should be concentrating on. In addition, the test will indicate at what point the two (or more) shared a common ancestor which should narrow their search considerably. Of the remaining participants, they can be placed into 4 main groups as follows: 1) A Virginia group who descend from John Payne (d. 1689) and Margaret Robinson of Westmoreland County- 2 participants. 2) A Maryland group who descend from Thomas Paine (d. 1673) and Jane Smallpiece of St. Mary's County- 3 participants (2 of which are father and son). There is a bit of conjecture here, as some believe that the ancestor of these participants, Isaiah Payne (b. 1735) Dorchester County, Maryland, was actually a descendant of a William Payne who came to Maryland from Virginia in 1673 with John Lee. Since this is my line (and I am one of the two participants mentioned), I am siding with the Thomas Payne of Maryland theory because the bulk of the evidence points to that conclusion. A more accurate classification should probably be: descendants of Isaiah Payne (b. 1735) of Dorchester County. 3) A Massachusetts group who descend from the Payne family of Great Ellingham, Norfolk, England- 1 participant. 4) Another Massachusetts group who descend from the Payne family of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England- 2 participants. It is hoped that this testing will establish that two or more of these 4 groups shared a common ancestor at some point prior to their immigration to America. In the case of group 2 (from Maryland) I expect to find an identical Y-chromosome signature between the participants as all three are direct descendants of Isaiah Payne mentioned above through two different sons. There is a possibility that we will add a fourth participant who descends from Flayl Payne of Maryland. It will be interesting to see if there is a connection there as well. Groups 1 and 2 share a connection in that both groups seem to have left Maryland at the same time (ca. 1765) for the same destination in North Carolina. By 1790, they once again moved together. This time to South Carolina. There has been a lot of confusion in separating these two families for this reason as well as that they both tended to give the same names to their children. I am confident that it had been a member of Group 1, William Payne, a son of John Payne (d. 1689), who had come to Maryland with John Lee in 1673 as this William Payne named John Lee's brother, Richard Lee, in his will, calling him "loving friend." This Richard Lee inherited the land in Maryland from his brother John when he died in 1673. This William Payne also instructed his daughter to go immediately upon his death to "Col. Lee's." In groups 3 and 4, there is an interesting connection in that the 2nd wife of the participants ancestor from group 3, Stephen Paine (d. 1679), had married the widow of William Parker, who is thought to have been a kinsman (perhaps brother) of Richard Parker whose daughter Sarah married John Payne, a member belonging to the 4th group. The 3rd group arrived in New England on a ship captained by John Martin, a Virginian, associated with group 1 and group 4 (through the iron works at Saugus). Martin was master of the battery for the iron works in Virginia and had been associated with Gov. William Berkeley, whose family had also been investors in the Saugus iron works (as well as with the Throckmorton's in the Michaelwood iron works in England). Moreover, William Payne of Boston (from group 4), conducted business on Virginia's Eastern Shore with close associates of both groups 1 and 2. A study of groups 3 and 4 in England reveals many other associations between them, as well as with another Payne family residing in Huntingdonshire, from which group 1 has long claimed descent. Unfortunately, the Huntingdonshire family is not represented in our study- as far as we know anyway. A recent discovery I've come upon through correspondence with the editor of The History of Parliament, who has generously made available to me the biographical sketch of Sir Robert Payne of St. Neots, Huntingdonshire, is that Sir Robert Payne had 4 more children (2 sons and 2 daughters) than was revealed in "The Paynes of Virginia" through the authors correspondence with the College of Arms. I've also managed to find the inscription on Sir Robert's tomb, which confirms this fact. As this is a new find, I have not had time to investigate who these 2 additional sons were and what became of them. They would have been born after 1613. Perhaps the greatest find in this is the fact that Sir Robert had a brother, John Payne, who became the rector at Southoe, Hunts. in 1600. (GL, 11588/2, pp. 248, 253; VCH Hunts. ii, 318-19; Hunts RO, Acc. 2533/1, f. 21) This information identifies Sir Robert's brother, Rev. John Payne (aft. 1573-20 Sep. 1635), as the father of Anne (1621-1 Sep. 1668), who married 1 Aug. 1636 at Hail Weston, Cambs., William Leete (1612/3-Apr. 1683), who immigrated with his family to New England where he became Governor of Hartford, Ct. This was a jewel of a find and provides information about the family of Sir Robert previously unknown to us. I won't get into all of the implications this may have, but it is something well worth studying. The biographical sketch of Sir Robert Payne and his family will be published in the next addition of The History of Parliament, by The History of Parliament Trust, by Act of Parliament. I will also make the sketch available in my book (with permission) along with the results of our DNA project. I will also include how this information on Sir Robert supports Albert Paine's conclusion in "Payne Genealogy- Ipswich Branch," that Sir Robert's great-grandfather had been a son of Sir Thomas Payne of Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, thereby making Sir Robert a cousin of the Payne's of Suffolk (group 4), who also immigrated to New England. Also how Sir Robert's family had been connected with group 3. By combining this information with what is known about (Capt.) George Payne, thought to have been the 3rd son of Sir Robert, and his dealings in Virginia, I think a much clearer picture will emerge on the relationships between at least 3 of the groups in our DNA study- groups 1, 3 and 4. That is all that I have to report at the moment. The project is progressing well and nearing the testing phase. We should soon after have some interesting results to report, perhaps as early as February. We will continue to accept new participants at any time, even after the initial testing occurs. Please contact me for details if interested. Merry Christmas! Patrick