This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Roper, Goodwyn, Goodwin Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/kgDBAEB/761.1.1.1.1.1 Message Board Post: When we speak of whether we come from the SAME ROPER line, the question is somewhat relative. Dr. L. David ROPER's ROPER DNA study has already demonstrated that MOST of the ROPERs in the Southern United States who can trace their lineage to a Colonial era ROPER ancestor ARE in fact genetically from the SAME ROPER family and that these ROPER families are also of the SAME ROPER family which settled in the early Colonial period in Massachusetts. More recently, it has been demonstrated that this "Majority USA ROPER Family" (MUR) is genetically the SAME ROPER famliy as an ancient ROPER family in Norfolk/Suffolk, England. I have shown in earlier Posts on the ROPER Message Boards that the earliest identifiable ROPER in America, Thomas ROPER, who died at Jamestown without issue is from a London ROPER family with Lancashire antecedents. And there is similarly now substantial evidence that the earliest ROPER in Colonial Virginia, Captain William ROPER, was from the armigerous ROPER family of Kent County, England. I believe that Captain WIlliam ROPER was probably the second son of Christopher ROPER, 2nd Baron Teynham. The connection between Captain William ROPER and subsequent ROPERs found in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, is still far more speculative. But circumstantial evidence exists linking my line of ROPERs in Charles City County, with William ROPER, of Anne Arundel, MD, and with Captain William ROPER. The ROPER Plantation on the Chickahominy was clearly already occupied by 1704, as John ROPER is shown in the Quit Rent Rolls that year. The Plantation was Patented in 1714. The Plantation came down my branch of the family and was devised by Will by David ROPER to his sons in 1808. I believe that MANY of the ROPERs in the South are descended from Charles ROPER (b abt 1720) and Anne GOODWYN. There is some evidence that this Charles ROPER came to America from England. But since Charles ROPER's desendents closely MATCH MY DNA tests and the DNA tests of ROPERs in Norfolk/Suffolk, it is apparent that his appearance in America represented another more recent migration from the SAME ROPER family. So while it seems unlikely that your ROPERs are from my own line (unless they are descended from a son of David ROPER OTHER THAN Rev. David ROPER, we are still propbably researching different branches of the SAME ROPER family. Incidentally, if you are in touch with ANY of the male ROPER-surnamed descendents of John H. ROPER, you might want to encourage them to participate in Dave's study. Take a look at the ongoing results and findings at: http://www.roperld.com/RoperGenetics.htm