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TODD DNA PROJECT
Setting the Public Switch at FTDNA
For questions or updates to
this webpage please contact Cherie Ohlsson at cherie_ohlsson@yahoo.com.
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
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 7th 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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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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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!
"Sizzling Summer Sale" at FTDNA extended to
9-30-08
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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
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
Research has found that Todds of America
came from
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
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
His
son John escaped and resettled in Counties Antrim & Armagh in
A great description of the Scots-Irish
migration to America can by found in "Born Fighting, How the Scots-Irish
Shaped America" by James Webb:
"The Scots-Irish Presbyterians began trickling out of
Ulster soon after the 1704 Test Acts came into force [in Ireland]. In the
next two decades a rather small assortment of families, typically traveling in
"parcels of 600 to 800 people, ventured across the Atlantic to test
America's promise as well as its receptivity to their religion and their
cultural ways [...] In this first experimental wave of emigration the Ulster
emigrants scattered their arrivals amount the major ports of Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Annapolis, and Charleston, South Carolina.
But by the early 1720's, when the large-scale migrations
from Norther Ireland began, the port of choice had become
From the early 1720s to the beginning of the American
Revolution in 1775, there were four great surges of Scots-Irish
migration. Each was brought about not only by events in
The Ulster Presbyterians who migrated to
Early migrations to
He later says the Scots-Irish were lured to
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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
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.
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.
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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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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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
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."
If you tested at another vendor, here is the link to
first create a record for your result
at Ysearch.org: http://www.ysearch.org/add_start.asp. Remember that the different labs have
different formulas and results for some markers. Conversion routines can be found at the
following address in Y-Search: http://www.ysearch.org/conversion_page.asp.
If you have also taken a
mitochondrial test you may update your data to MitoSearch which is similar to
Ysearch. The link will appear at the top
of your personal page. Mitochondrial
markers are passed from mother to child, but are only passed along by the
daughters. Since mitochondrial tests are
maternal markers they are not associated with a surname.
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John Blair has an excellent
explanation of the DNA process on his Blair Surname Project. Basically there are 43 DNA Markers which are
passed from father to son and remain the same generation to generation with an
occasional mutation. This is why only
males can do this test. All Y-DNA tests
allow you to identify your ethnic and geographic origins (Haplogroup), both
recent and far distant on your direct male descending line. Among others, you
will be able to check your Native-American or African Ancestry as
well as for the Cohanim Ancestry.
A description of Haplogroups follows this section.
A wonderful set of videos
describing DNA testing and how it can help you in your genealogy research is
provided on the Family Tree DNA website at http://www.familytreedna.com/videoaudio.html.
FTDNA also has an explanation
of the genetic distances (when the markers are different) and what it means at http://www.familytreedna.com/gdrules_12.html. Basically out of 25 markers tested, if you
mismatch on:
0 markers – you are related
1 marker – you are related
2 markers – you are probably
related
3 markers – you are probably
not related, but more tests need to be done
4. markers – you are not
related but it is vaguely possible.
5 markers – you are not
related but possibly shared an ancestor over 2000 years ago.
6 markers – you are not
related but possibly shared an ancestor over 5000 years ago.
7 (or more) markers – you are
not possibly related.
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FTDNA Y-DNA tests allow you
to identify your ethnic and geographic origins (Haplogroups), both recent and
far distant. Among other features, this test will also be able to indicate your
Native-American Ancestry and which of the 5 major groups that settled in
the Americans you are most likely to be descended from. It can also
describe African Ancestry as well as other ethnic origins.
Y-DNA
Haplogroup Descriptions:
The
following Haplogroup Descriptions are from the FamilyTreeDNA.com website which
was the testing company used to determine the nearest Haplogroup assigment
based on the individual's haplotype results from the Y-DNA test. These verbatim
Haplogroup Descriptions and/or excerpts are copyrighted by FamilyTreeDNA.com
and all rights to these descriptions are claimed by FamilyTreeDNA.com. These
descriptions have been printed here with the permission of FamilyTreeDNA.com.
These descriptions cannot be used elsewhere without the written permission of
FamilyTreeDNA.com.
Please
note that people in different Haplogroups cannot be related within many
thousands of years, and that each male test result provides a prediction of the
Haplogroup currently about 90% of the time. If your Y-DNA matches suggest that
you belong, for example, to Haplogroup R1b, you may confirm that by ordering a
Y-DNA SNP test for the R1b clade.
In
general the following rule of thumb may be used: R1b = Western Europe, R1a =
Haplogroup
B is one of the oldest Y-chromosome lineages in humans.
Haplogroup
B is found exclusively in
Haplogroup
C is found throughout mainland
Haplogroup
C3 is believed to have originated in southeast or central
Haplogroup
D2 most likely derived from the D lineage in
Haplogroup
E3a is an
Haplogroup
E3b is believed to have evolved in the
Haplogroup
G may have originated in
Haplogroup
H is nearly completely restricted to
Haplogroups I, I1, and I1a are nearly completely restricted to
northwestern
Haplogroup
I1b was derived within Viking/Scandinavian populations in northwest Europe and
has since spread down into southern
Haplogroup
J is found at highest frequencies in Middle Eastern and north African
populations where it most likely evolved. This marker has been carried by
Middle Eastern traders into Europe, central Asia,
Haplogroup
J2 originated in the northern portion of the Fertile Crescent where it later
spread throughout central Asia, the Mediterranean, and south into
Haplogroup
Q is the lineage that links Asia and the
Haplogroup
Q3 is the only lineage strictly associated with native American populations.
This haplogroup is defined by the presence of the M3 mutation (also known as
SY103). This mutation occurred on the Q lineage 8-12 thousand years ago as the
migration into the
Haplogroup
R1a is believed to have originated in the Eurasian Steppes north of the Black
and
Haplogroup
R1b is the most common Haplogroup in European populations. It is believed to
have expanded throughout
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We
are currently working with the following families and seeking their permission
to include their data in our website:
1. Andrew Todd d. 1781
2. William Todd b. 1787, d.
1855
- Archibald Todd b.
c1695
Massachusetts/Maine
Todds
1.
William Todd/Todde (probably born
2.
John Todd b.1621 Bradford,
West Riding, Yorkshire, Eng - d. Rowley, Essex, MA &1643 Susanna Hunt 1621-1710 (Desc. of
William Todde of
3.
Nathaniel Todd b. b. 15 Apr. 1718, at Newbury, Mass; d. 1782, at
1.
Michael Todd d
1731,
2. Thomas Todd d.
1699,
3. Thomas Todd d
1677
4. Benjamin Todd b. 1749, d.
1823, married 1781
5. &