Hi Fred-- On Jul 9, 2010, at 8:45 PM, fred westcott wrote: > ...It may be a little difficult to attract people to it because the popular idea > is that all Westcotts descend from Stukley Westcott of Providence, RI, > or one of his nephews... Pshaw. You will seldom find a surname project admin who feels it's easy to attract participants. Now, don't allow your own preconceptions prevent you from doing this valuable work! Curious about one of my own (English) lineages, I backed into unintended admin-ship of the tiny Willett surname project. Much to my astonishment, ALL of those who've joined the project since then have been Ouellettes (and variants) of French Canadian ancestry, completely unrelated to any of the English participants, ---altho many bear Anglicized surnames. The tradition in this family is that all the North Americans descend from a single French settler, but almost none have utilized DNA to test the theory. Yet. My response is generally along the lines of, "Oh yeah? Prove it!" So far no data whatsoever has benefited my own research, but I have learned an immense amount about founder mutations, to which early French Canadian colonists were subject due to small, isolated populations. What the heck. Since there is considerable overlap of surnames, and some of the English Willetts were loyalists who fled to Canada during the American Revolution, such that we are all deeply confused... the project is bound to attract someone useful to me sooner or later. When you start that project, be sure you list Westacott, Westacot, Westcot, Westcott, Westercott, Wescot, Wescott, Wesket, and any other bizarre variants with which you are familiar as acceptable participant surnames. Lisa Wilcox

Hi LIsa, Thanks for the encouragement. And there is also Westgate, Waistcott, Wescote, etc. I've joined four projects in the past month and am gaining in experience. I've been involved in this only a couple of months now but the knowledge base is growing. I just joined a U106 project doing the deep clade thing so am learning a little about the SNP angle of it. I'll think about it. Do your Willetts include Willhite, etc. ? I sometimes search the Willett variation when looking for Willhite/Wilheit/Wilhoit. Fred On 7/10/10, Wilcox Lisa <occassia@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Fred-- > > On Jul 9, 2010, at 8:45 PM, fred westcott wrote: > >> ...It may be a little difficult to attract people to it because the >> popular idea >> is that all Westcotts descend from Stukley Westcott of Providence, RI, >> or one of his nephews... > > Pshaw. > > You will seldom find a surname project admin who feels it's easy to attract > participants. > > Now, don't allow your own preconceptions prevent you from doing this > valuable work! > > Curious about one of my own (English) lineages, I backed into unintended > admin-ship of the tiny Willett surname project. Much to my astonishment, ALL > of those who've joined the project since then have been Ouellettes (and > variants) of French Canadian ancestry, completely unrelated to any of the > English participants, ---altho many bear Anglicized surnames. > > The tradition in this family is that all the North Americans descend from a > single French settler, but almost none have utilized DNA to test the theory. > Yet. My response is generally along the lines of, "Oh yeah? Prove it!" > > So far no data whatsoever has benefited my own research, but I have learned > an immense amount about founder mutations, to which early French Canadian > colonists were subject due to small, isolated populations. > > What the heck. Since there is considerable overlap of surnames, and some of > the English Willetts were loyalists who fled to Canada during the American > Revolution, such that we are all deeply confused... the project is bound to > attract someone useful to me sooner or later. > > When you start that project, be sure you list Westacott, Westacot, Westcot, > Westcott, Westercott, Wescot, Wescott, Wesket, and any other bizarre > variants with which you are familiar as acceptable participant surnames. > > > Lisa Wilcox > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > Y-DNA-PROJECTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >