OK folks. Don't let me dominate the conversation here. The list now has over 50 subscribers, so I'm asking for our first roll call. Don't feel you have to join in, but you are certainly welcome to do so. A "roll call" consists of briefly introducing yourself, giving your main research interests or, in the case of this list, the projects you either administer or are a member of, and your most pressing question or most important goal. Whatever you think the list would like to know about you with regard to your participation in Y-DNA surname projects. I'll start with moi... I'm retired, and my hobby/passion/obsession is genealogy. I run six DNA projects: one regional project (Danish Demes) and five surname projects: BIDDLE, CARRICO, CORBIN, RASEY, and STRAUB, the oldest of which just turned four years old. My biggest personal success, so far, is "crossing the pond" with my STRAUB ancestry (my mother was a STRAUB). My biggest remaining goals are to "cross the pond" with my CARRICO, CORBIN, and RASEY lines, and to resolve the NPE in the BIDDLE project, which I'm actually working on for someone else. My biggest problem is lack of time. I've always needed a 30-hour day, but I never dreamt that when I retired, I'd still need one. My own DNA projects seem to be running smoothly, though new members never come in as quickly as you would want. If I won the lottery, I'd spend it on DNA testing! In addition to web pages for each of my projects, I have a large genealogy web site that is the other black hole for my time: http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/GenealogyHome.shtml Diana

Diana Gale Matthiesen wrote: > OK folks. Don't let me dominate the conversation here. The list now has over > 50 subscribers, so I'm asking for our first roll call. Don't feel you have to > join in, but you are certainly welcome to do so. > > Thanks, Diana, for taking the initiative and starting this list. I'm Brent Bradberry, and I administer the BRADBERRY/BRADBURY surname project, still new and small. Our first five members show three haplogroups - talk about multiple origins! I'm retired (25 years U S Navy and then 20 more teaching mathematics) and live outside of Moscow, Idaho. My great ambition is to cross the pond with our surname. So far, all our "Yank" members hit brick walls, mostly in colonial Virginia. We have one Aussie and one Brit, but they don't match any of our Yanks. BTW I am I1, YHSK7 at YSearch.

I could dominate the conversation all by myself, Diana. However, I will be nice. In a previous message I told you about the projects I administer so let me tell you about the ones that members of my family are participants in. My maternal uncle, the only one left, did YDNA testing for me. I had mtDNA testing done. Okay one side of the family done. My paternal grandmother was an Ikamire and her mother was a Mullinix (see the pattern here? :>) ). My brother graciously said "well, what are brothers for?" and was tested for our paternal Y line. I also have two sons by different husbands so have had both of them tested. I'd like to talk about my brother's testing for a minute as it presents one of the most frustrating results I've encountered. Our surname was Day and for the longest time he had no matches at all. Then suddenly he had a 67/67 match! Whoopee! When I contacted the other participant I found the following similarities. His ancestor was born in Virginia c 1775, probably Albemarle county. Mine was born in Virginia c 1781, county unknown. His ancestor moved to Claiborne Co., TN. So did mine. Then both men moved to Putnam Co., IN where his ancestor died. Mine moved on to Putnam Co., MO where he apparently died as he disappears after the 1860 census. We have been able through tax records in Albemarle Co. to establish that his ancestor's father's name was John. Couldn't have been something unusual like Hezekiah! So here we are; the brick wall had a crack which has now sealed itself over again. On one son's line I have a 67 marker test result, have done Deep SNP testing including the U's and am waiting for 464X test results. He was adopted by his stepfather and his birth father was adopted by his aunt and uncle. So I have the paper trail and can prove his bloodline is of the Trail family but can only get back as far as 1805, South Carolina. The other son is a Bryant and is a member of the O'Brien project. I play with an even field so he has the same level of testing as his brother and my brother. His earliest known ancestor is a Josiah Bryant. But wouldn't you know there was more than one contemporary Josiahs. Sharon P.S. As if I didn't have enough "bricks" in my life, I'm having my kitchen enlarged and I live in a brick house. :>) P.P.S. I'm also retired (professor of contract business management for DOD) and am recovering from a stroke I had the first of June. Typing is therapeutic!

Hello; Diana and Everyone. I am Ned Jimmerson, retired. i have an ongoing desire to find the beginning of the jimmerson line. T help in that search i had a YDNA test done. the results of which gave Me a 34/37 match with a Jamieson. i am a member of the Jamieson Surname droup at FTDNA and the Jamison group at World Families. there is no Jimmerson group as I can not persuade anyone else to test and I haven't the cash flow to pay for anyone to be tested. my retirement was due to heal th reasons so the flow of testing cash is nil. I am open to any suggestions on how to awaken an interest, in long dead relatives; in the 20 to 40 yearold men I find on facebook and Google images. Enjoy, the Day, Ned Jimmerson

I am the administrator of the Dorsey/Darsey/Darcy/Dawsey/Dossey/D'Arcy DNA Project, http://www.contexo.info/DorseyDNA. My first foray into DNA testing was in 2001 to solve an old family mystery of my great-great grandfather's origins, http://www.contexo.info/DorseyDNA/HarveyKelley.htm. Though we are only a medium size project, we have answered a number of questions that had plagued Dorsey, et al, researchers for years. At the present time, my own Dorsey line appears to lead to the illegitimate child of a Dorsey widow in colonial Baltimore. With a very unusual R1b1b2g haplotype, we are hopefully awaiting a spurious match with someone with a surname that can be traced back to colonial Maryland. The project also has six other well defined lineages, a number of which, not surprisingly, point to Irish origins. I am also a co-administrator of the Castor. . .Custer DNA Project which includes the names Castor - Caster - Coster - Custard - Custer - Gerster - Kaster - Keister - Kester Kiester - Kistard - Kister - Kistard - Koester - Koster - Kuester - Kustard - Kusterd - Kuster . . . The website for that project is at http://www.caoa-gen.org/caoa-webpage/dnaproj/dnamain.htm My husband and I also have a small spinoff of the Custer Project, the Cursiter Project, which includes the Cursiter (and many variant spellings) family of the Orkney Islands. No website for that yet as we are only a small family and we all know each other. Perhaps I will be inspired to set up a web page or two for that group. In the interim, Cursiter results are posted on ysearch BGPD5. Before I started the Dorsey Project, I set up a series of web pages about the basics of DNA for use by genealogists who are just learning to use DNA for genealogy. That website is at http://www.contexo.info/DNA_Basics/ I also sponsor a number of samples in other projects (my proxies for various other ancestral lines). Nancy Custer

I welcome a list that is geared to surname projects. I administer the Carter, Tallent, and Kostelec Y-DNA project and am a participant (by way of my daughter-in-law's father) in the Stevenson project. The Carter DNA project was started in October of 2003 and currently has about 230 tested participants. Our website with results is at: www.carter-cousins.org. We have a great group and many people have been assisted with their genealogy by others in the group. Personally, I was able, through DNA testing, to find my ancestor in VA, born abt 1773, but have not found the "paper" record in Baltimore, MD to prove it. At least I know I am on the right track! And I am working with other researchers (who are much more knowledgeable than I) to try to find his ancestry. That said, our largest obstacle is receiving family information from participants to share on the website. It is frustrating to have a match with someone who will not share their genealogy. I explain to them that it doesn't need to be generated in a "program", just a simple narrative will do, but still don't always receive the information. Our group is not restricted in anyway. There is a restricted Carter project for those who desire that feature administered by the Carter Society. If someone with another surname has even heard the whisper of a Carter male in their past they are welcome to join ours. Who knows what they may learn from their matches. I do recommend 37+ marker tests when asked. Vickie

Yes, getting lineage information can be a big headache, though for me, more so in the early days than now. However, it's crucial to get the lineage or the test results aren't useful to the project. Initially, I was so hungry for members, I let people in, then worried later about getting their lineage from them. I no longer do that, and it's one reason I don't allow people to join without my consent. (If you're a project admin at FTDNA, this feature is controlled on the "Project Profile Page" of your GAP.) In my first response to their request to join, I ask them their lineage. I don't mean I ask for a set of family group sheets or a GEDCOM at this early stage. I just ask them for the name of their earliest known ancestor, plus the list of names connecting themselves to that ancestor. If they resist, I tell them sharing their lineage is a *requirement* for joining the project. Even if they never share more than the list of names, I can "do" their genealogy, myself, if I have to. As long as I can snag their line in the 1930 census, I have a pretty good chance of getting them back to a known progenitor, or at least as far as the 1850 census. (I don't know what I would do without the online census at Ancestry.com!) These are surnames I've been gathering data on for many years, so it's usually not like I'm starting at "ground zero" with a line. Diana > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] On Behalf Of > Vickie Carter Tallent > Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 12:41 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Y-DNA-projects] roll call > <snip> > > That said, our largest obstacle is receiving family information from > participants to share on the website. It is frustrating to > have a match with > someone who will not share their genealogy. I explain to them that it > doesn't need to be generated in a "program", just a simple > narrative will > do, but still don't always receive the information. > <snip> > > Vickie > > >

I administer the DNA project for the Stonehewer to Stanier Society. It is currently very small, with only 4 people tested. We used to believe that all Stonehewer (and variants) families descended from John Stonhewer, who lived in Biddulph, Staffordshire, England in 1560. But DNA tests have disproved that. The Society has found 5 sub-trees, 3 of which have had at least 1 person tested. One of these has an apparently solid paper pedigree back to John Stonhewer. The tests we have done have enabled us to link two of the trees together. We are now searching for a living male on the other 2 trees, with a view of subsidising, or possible paying for, their DNA test. Alan

I'm the administrator of the HOLDER and JEROME projects. The JEROME project is very new, with only two participants so far - and we don't even have the results back for the second one yet. I think there's been very little interest in DNA testing for this family to date because most Jeromes in the U.S. have a good paper trail back to an immigrant ancestor who arrived in CT around 1700, and most probably haven't felt DNA testing would tell them anything useful about their recent genealogy. However, I was contacted a couple of months ago by someone whose surname is not Jerome, but thinks based on his research that this is his biological Y-DNA lineage. He had already been tested and wanted to find an authentic Jerome to compare. His search for the surname on line brought him to my personal genealogy site, and I was able to persuade a cousin to provide a sample, paid for by the first participant. In other words, this project is starting out with an NPE, and we'll see where it goes from there. The HOLDER project was started in 2004, and has been a great success. We have 55 samples, of which more than half fall into three main groups. The others are spread among 14 additional groups with 1 to 3 members each. The haplogroups represented are quite diverse. We have a HOLDER-DNA list, have had weekend get-togethers in 2005 and 2007, and are planning another in September of this year. Interest and enthusiasm have been high, and it's been a very congenial group to work with. I've also sponsored DNA tests for a number of other surnames in my ancestry and my husband's, and for a son-in-law and an adopted grandson. I've found some of those projects very good to work with, and others to be sadly lacking either in organization, presentation of data, or unwillingness to share. -- Elizabeth Harris [email protected] Personal genealogy webpage: http://www.momslookups.com/generations/ Winston-Salem NC area genealogy: http://www.fmoran.com/ HOLDER DNA project: http://www.holderdna.com/