DNA PROJECT

The Todd Family DNA Project seeks to use DNA analysis to enable Todd families to determine if they share a common ancestor with other Todd families. For ease of developing this page, I have chosen my family name “Todd” to describe the project. Please be assured that this project is for all derivatives of the name (Todd, Tod, Todds, Todde, Tode, Toad, Tood, etc.)

The project will:

Develop a table of genetic patterns of all Todd Families so that Todd researchers can determine whether their families have a common ancestor with other Todd families
Encourage Todd researchers to submit DNA samples.
Share the results with all participants in the project and make the results publicly available on the internet with appropriate considerations for privacy of participants

For example, one of the elements of the Todd Family DNA Project is to determine whether the New Jersey Todds (settled 1735), the Philadelphia Co Todds (settled 1737-1760) and the Augusta Co, VA Todds (settled 1750) are all related or not. Another element is to see if the Maryland – born Todds who migrated to Kentucky and Ohio in the 1790s and 1800s are related to the Dorchester, Anne Arundel or Baltimore Todds who settled in Maryland in the 1600s.

Those who want to, once and for all, put to bed the family lore that you are related to Mary Todd Lincoln (or other famous / infamous people)…DNA testing is the way.

The project uses high technology DNA analysis to determine whether families share a common ancestor. The male chromosome is passed down virtually unchanged from father to son. So, two male Todd 7^th cousins would have virtually the same male DNA pattern. This scientific fact is useful in genealogy when one does not have documentary records to show a family connection despite circumstantial evidence that suggest a family connection. If the DNA of the descendants of the branches one is trying to connect do not have the same DNA pattern, then one knows they are not closely related. If the pattern does match, then there is a common ancestor at some point in the past lineage. The technology can’t pinpoint how many generations back the ancestor is, but it can tell us if there is a common ancestor.

Participants joining the project are sent a lab kit in the mail. The kit includes a “Q” tip or toothbrush type of instrument that one rubs along the inside of one’s cheek with for 30 to 60 seconds. Then the swab is placed in an envelope and mailed to the lab. That’s all it takes.

Within 6 to 8 weeks, results are available for the sample submitted. When enough samples are collected to make comparisons between branches of the family, a summary sheet will be supplied to each participant indicating which branches were shown to have a common ancestor.

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GENEALOGY RESOURCES

A fellow researcher sent the following page that contains a list of good resources for genealogists. If you have a good website for that we should list here, let me know.

MY FACTS PAGE - GENEALOGY RESOURCES

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DONATIONS & BARGAINS

To help the pay the costs of donations FTDNA has funds set up for each project. If you would like to help defray the cost of tests for other people go to http://www.familytreedna.com/contribution.html. Be sure to specify the donation is to be given to the “Todd” project. Thank you for your generosity!

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TODD HERITAGE

The Scottish Todd families were allied with either the Gordon Clan or the MacTavish (or Thom(p)son) Clan…a family within a family. The Irish definition of this affiliation is that the Todds are a “Sept” of the Clan. A stags head is depicted on most coats of arms for Gordons and a boars head on the MacTavish coats of arms. The Gordon’s were an affluent and distinguished family from Normandy. For more details of the Gordon clan see http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/dtog/gordon.html and for details of the MacTavishes see http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/m/mactavi.html.

According to http://www.mactamhais.liquidweb.com/history.htm, the name MacTavish stems from Taus Coir, (Tavis). a son born to Colin MacDuine of Lochow, (Colin Maol Maith-Good bald Colin) of the family MacDuine, and a daughter of Suibhne Rudah of Castle Sween (Lord and Toisech of Kintyre/Knapdale). Maol Maith had been married to a niece (by whom he had one son, Gillespick) of King Alexander I and upon her death, he married Suibhne's daughter (1105-1007 AD), having by her two sons, Taus or Tavis and Ivor. In 1746 the MacTavishes (and presumably the Todds) fought with Bonnie Prince Charlie against the English and lost. After that many MacTavishes began using the name Thom(p)son to avoid the genocide that ensued. They fled to Ireland and the New World.

Research has found that Todds of America came from Scotland (often via Ireland) and England. It is not known if the English Todds are descendents of the Scottish Todds, Gordon or MacTavish. Some of the English Todds hailed from northern England, often Yorkshire. Many were seafarers and ship’s captains. DNA testing has shown the Scottish Todds were of Nordic descent, while the English Todds were of European descent. If we could find testees from the MacTavish Todds, the results would be most enlightening. Would they result in another major group, or match up with Gordon or English Todds?

The “Mary Todd Lincoln” line has been traced to the Sir James, Laird of Dunbar line. This is not a nobility line, it is a landholder title. They were born in "ANGUS” also called Forfarshire county in eastern Scotland. Presumably this means that this line was from the Gordon clan.

James and his sons, Robert and John (and possibly another son, James), were captured with other Covenanters by the English after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679. James and Robert were captured and later killed when they were Loaded on a ship (the Crown of London) with about 250 others to be shipped to the West Indies and sold as slaves. It sank in a storm off the Orkney Islands. The ships captain had all the holds shut and padlocked while the ship was pounded against the reef. A few prisoners survived the ship only to be killed by the ships crew. Only a few of the prisoners escaped.

His son John escaped and resettled in Counties Antrim & Armagh in Northeastern Ireland. John was known as “John the Fox (Tod)” for evading the English. All of John’s children immigrated to America. An excellent write-up of the Scotch-Irish migration can be found at the Rockbridge County, VA GenWeb site: http://www.rootsweb.com/~varockbr/scotpres.htm.

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OTHER NOTABLE HISTORY

This section is purely for the reader’s pleasure and was a terrific suggestion from researcher Glen Todd, who donated our first item. Learn about other Todd trivia. We welcome any new items you think Todd researchers might be interested in reading.

Trivia Item 1

From Glen Todd (glen@glentodd.net) who gleaned it from the History Channel:

A mailman named James G. Todd appears to have been the last victim of the legendary curse of the Hope Diamond. It was he who delivered the package containing the diamond to the Smithsonian on Nov. 11, 1958, and after that there was a long series of disasters in his life, including his leg being crushed in a vehicle accident, injuries in a second car accident, the unexpected death of his wife, and his house burning down, all within a year of his delivery of the package.

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ORDERING DNA SAMPLE KITS

The Todd Family DNA project seeks to include data from the various Todd DNA projects and incorporate their data. Family Tree DNA’s (FTDNA) laboratory is recommended. It is affiliated with Dr. Michael Hammer and the University of Arizona and tests the Y-chromosome for genetic matches between males. Results are placed in FTDNA's Y-DNA database and when 2 people show matching results, the lab will inform both parties (provided both signed the FTDNA Release Form). Please visit the FTDNA website for more information and an explanation of Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA).

Other projects use other labs, but the results cannot be loaded into the FTDNA database. However, if you send us the results we will match them with the members data in this project and we will add the results to our display.

By ordering through FTDNA you receive project group rates, which are less expensive than standard rates. The following Y-chromosome DNA tests are available. Please see the FTDNA website for availability of other types of DNA testing.

Y-DNA12 (12 marker test for $99)
Y-DNA25 (25 marker test for $169)
Y-DNA37 (37 marker test for $229)

The 12 marker test is best at ruling out relatedness with another participant, but is of limited value in genealogy and is not recommended. The 25 marker test is more refined. And FTDNA is now offering the 37 marker test. Whichever you choose now can always be upgraded later for an additional fee as shown below:

Y-DNA12to25 for $90
Y-DNA12to37 for $149
Y-DNA25to37 for $59

Other kits are available for testing Haplogroups.

By ordering the kit through our project you are agreeing to have your results incorporated with other tests and displayed on this site.

Click here, to order a DNA Sample Kit, or email one of the administrators for assistance. Please note, that when you order your sample kit online you may string other email addresses in the email contact information. Separate them by a semicolon. For example: InterestedParty1@xxx.com; InterestedParty2@xxx.com.

You may include anyone you wish, such as anyone who took part in paying for your test.

When you receive the test, you will find a release form. Please complete it and return it with your sample. This will make your results (numbers only, no personal information) accessible in online searches of the FTDNA database and will enable FTDNA to notify you of future matches. However, it does not make your information available to other surname projects or Ysearch.

We strongly encourage all participants to make their results public in the FTDNA database and in YSearch. (Information at this link was gratefully obtained from Phillip Hawkins on his excellent Hawkins surname project.

Lastly, if you would email your family tree to us, minus living people, we would really appreciate it, so we can add it to this site. If you have your data on a website you may send the address for that. Please let us know if you would be willing to be a coordinator for your specific Todd line. If you do we post your name and email address as a contact for anyone wishing to get more information or to find other people in the tree. The time commitment should be small.

For more information, contact the project co-administrators; Cherie Ohlsson (cherie_ohlsson@yahoo.com) or Terry Todd (tlt@tltodd.com).

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Surname Project Public Data

Regarding the Private/public setting that participants may select: This switch, by default, is set to private. A participant may change this to public by going to his Personal Page, and clicking on Update Contact Information. Near the bottom of the new page you will see - “Private Restrict match notifications to your surname project.” If there is a check in the box your data is being compared only to the TODD participants. If you uncheck the box, then you will be compared to all the “Public” participants in the Family Tree DNA data bank. If you change to public, you are going to see more matches. I caution that 12/12 matches to a surname other that TODD is probably of no significance in our highly populated R1b haplogroup, however, if you show a 23/25 match (or higher) with a different surname, you probably should correspond with that individual. There might be a case of one of the ancestors being adopted or the result of a non-wedlock birth.

The following, a message copied from GENEALOGY-DNA-L, highlights the preceding.

“Max [Family Tree DNA] said that 66% of records have this flag checked, so that a search for matches can only view 1/3 of the database. The flag is set to Private by default, and I can't help but wonder if people realize the significance of this setting. (Unchecking doesn't mean that your results become "public" in the sense that anyone can see your record. It means that your record will be included when the whole database is searched for matches.)” Ann Turner GENEALOGY-DNA-L Administrator.

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Ysearch & MitoSearch

Please upload your information to Ysearch, if you have not already done so (some TODD members have not done this). Doing this will not compromise any security that you desire to protect.

Family Tree DNA participants: Go to your Personal Page and simply click Upload, to automatically upload your Y-DNA results to Ysearch. If you then upgrade your Y-DNA test, such as from 25 Markers to 37 Markers, the Upload selection will reappear on your Personal Page, as a reminder to upload the additional Markers.

Also Ysearch (http://www.ysearch.org/edit_start.asp) has been enhanced so that the location for your most distant male ancestor can be entered using latitude and longitude coordinates. It is important to update your Ysearch record with this information. For Europe, the latitude and longitude coordinates will give your ancestor a pin on the HaploMap. Please take a moment now and add this information. Follow the directions at Ysearch, which include a link to a site to look up the latitude and longitude coordinates.

Also, you may now upload your family file (.ged).

If you tested with Family Tree DNA, but have not yet established a record at Ysearch.org, go to your Personal Page, and click "Ysearch."