Project History
In the late 1980’s a core group of
genealogical researchers through exchanges of information began to see the
need for a central spokesperson to assimilate and distribute the
analytical reports that was to become the mainstay of the group. Thus
emerged Linda Sparks Starr, who’s web page can be found at
Colonial Virginia Connections
where many other Colonial surname analytical reports can be reviewed
today. Frustrating Linda’s group was the fact that researching in Colonial
Virginia was severally hampered because of several “burned” counties, New
Kent County in particular. By the year 2000 DNA research in relation to
genealogy had became a hot topic of national discussion and Linda’s group
was quick to grasp the importance of this new research. At first, there
were only a few individual volunteers from within the group to agree to
being tested but these early DNA results soon showed that more
participants would be needed for comparison. Fortunately, the
lab early on initiated a
program, called "Surname Projects", which enabled a group such as ours to
encourage participants to take part in this DNA project for the benefit of
everyone. Hence, the beginning of this project. As
a result of it's eary beginning, the J/J/J Surname DNA Project is
historically listed as a
Pioneer DNA Surname Project
Project Objective
Our goal is to aid anyone
interested in researching their family history using DNA testing. If you
are a serious genealogist, sooner or later you are going to reach the end
of a proven "paper trail". When this happens, looking beyond this so
called "brick wall" can become very exasperating and next to impossible.
Y-DNA testing offers an exciting new approach to solving this problem.
Basically, a Y-DNA test is that of the y-chromosome which is passed down
from father to son. Dennis West , administrator of the West surname
project, has created an excellent
graphic illustration of how this occurs. Thus, a surname lineage can
be identified in this manner.
However, the test results
of a single DNA test, standing alone, is of little value. It is by
comparing that single test with others in a database that it becomes
valuable. That is the purpose of this project! Each participant's test
results are of equal importance in this regard.
So, as the Johnson/Johnston/Johnstone
database grows larger with each new participant, so does the chances that
another rumbling sound will be heard as one more "brick wall" comes
crashing down!
There is another exciting aspect of DNA testing and that is the study of
"ancient
ancestry"!It
goes without saying, most all of us are curious to know who we were before
surnames were used to identify us! As our database grows, we will explore
this new field which allows us to trace the migrations of our earliest
ancestors as they populated the world. Not only can the male Y-DNA tests
be used for this study but also that of the mtDNA test. Mitrocondia DNA (mtDNA)
is passed down through the maternal line. Interestingly, the National
Geographic Society is presently conducting a five year project called the
Genegraphic Project the purpose of which is a detailed study of human
migrations. Many of our J/J/J participants are participating in this
exciting project! Also, see this interesting mtDNA site:
The Family of Woman
Pedigrees
As stated in the Project Objectives,
comparison of a participant's test data with others in our database is
the goal of our project. Coupled with each participant's DNA test
results, we seek to display the pedigree of that individual. Whether
short or long, famous or not, each pedigree is of equal importance in
trying to solve the problems of genealogical research where records have
been lost or have not existed. Whenever a new participant joins our
project, I will make an attempt to send him a "Thank You" note and include
directions regarding his pedigree...example:
Please be aware that one of the
mainstays of our project is that each of our participants is asked to
submit his pedigree to be posted on our web page for others to observe
and compare DNA test results. The pedigree should be of your male
line and can be of simple
form...example:
John Johnson
son of:
John Doe Johnson Jr.
b.(date),(place), d.(date), (place)
md: (name spouse), (date
married), (place married)
son of:
John Doe Johnson Sr. b. (date),(place),
d.(date), (place)
md:
(name spouse), (date married), (place married)
son of:
Doe John Johnson b. (date),(place),
d.(date), (place)
md: (name spouse), (date married), (place married)
son of:
And so on....and on!
Go back as far as you have
record - it's understandable if you are missing the name of
a spouse or date and place. You can send the pedigree to the
administrator(s) directly or fill out this convenient online
form. It's best to have the
pedigree on hand at the time the results are returned from the lab so
there is no delay in getting everything posted. This is most
helpful should the results match another participants and the pedigrees
need be combined.
To view the pedigree
of an individual, click on the kit number of that person no matter where
you are on the project pages.... with one exception. This feature
is not available on the DNA Test Results
(Alleles) for Project Members link
Surname History
The Johnson/Johnston/Johnstone
(J/J/J)
surname is one of several common surnames widely dispersed across world
ethnic groups. The history of surname origins is quite interesting and in
general, the origin of surname varies greatly within ethnic groups as
this report
shows. Most researchers readily associate the J/J/J surname with English,
Scottish or Irish nationalities. And, in truth, the greater percentage of
of our participants are representative of these groups.
However, our project includes J/J/J surname
participants from many other nationalities.
One of our participants, Billy Johnson, kit
number N25482, has compiled an interesting
report on
the origins of the Johnson/Johnston/Johnstone surname. Hopefully, as
this project grows, the collected data will be able to aid each of the
family groups in each nationality in determining when (and how) they came
to own the surname Johnson/Johnston/Johnstone!
Haplogroups
Genetic Genealogy offers researchers the
opportunity look beyond the origins of surnames.
What is a haplogroup? Well, as I understand it, it is
a classification of people, once thought of as races but now proving not
necessarily so, that emerged as humans populated this earth. In the
scientific world, as it relates to the Y-Chromosome and our project, a
Haplogroup is defined as all the male descendants of the single person who
first showed a SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) mutation. A SNP
mutation identifies a group who had a common ancestor far back in time,
since SNP's rarely mutate. Each member of a Haplogroup would have the same
SNP mutation as the common ancestor. These mutations are extremely rare,
and identify a group of people over a period of tens of thousands of
years. So a haplogroup can be thought of as extending back in
time thousands and even tens of thousands of years.
Family Tree DNA, the lab that does the testing for
this project, has posted on each participant’s personal page a suggested
haplogroup for that participant using a technique called STR testing
(Short Tandem Repeats).
For a participant to access his Personal Page, he may log into
FamilyTreeDNA.com with his kit number and password. The results
posted there comparing each individual participant’s STR test with the
extensive world-wide database created by Dr. Hammer, of Family Tree DNA,
is very interesting. I urge each participant to visit his own personal
page and read the material found there.
Notice in the above paragraph that Family Tree DNA
informs us that this STR testing only indicates a suggested haplogroup. To
actually confirm a haplogroup, Family Tree DNA can perform a test for
haplogroup determination utilizing specific SNP Markers. The Y-DNA SNP
test will determine if the estimated haplogroup is your haplogroup. As an
example, if your estimated haplogroup is R1b, a test could be ordered to
confirm if you are indeed an R1b or not, but in case you are not, you
would have to perform additional test(s) to find your Haplogroup. That is
why Family Tree DNA only recommends the test to those who really want (we
mean... very badly) want to know his haplogroup.
In the past there have seen at least seven (7) systems in use in the
scientific community for defining and naming Haplogroups. These various
systems, which assigned different names to Haplogroups, often led to
confusion. One has only to surf the web in this field to view these
differences first hand. Depending on which system was utilized in the
literature you read, Haplogroups had different names and definitions. To
solve this problem, a Y Chromosome Consortium was created to develop a new
system to name Haplogroups and subgroups. The Y Chromosome Consortium
scientific paper, which describes this Haplogroup naming system, can be
found
here.It is this system that we
will use in this database. Family Tree DNA provides us with a single page
graphic representation of the Y Chromosome Haplogroup
tree
News Flash
The News Flash page (see menu bar at the top of this page) has been
created to be of help in keeping J/J/J members abreast of current events
related to Genetic Genealogy. Web page activities will also be posted on
the News Flash page.
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