Y chromosome analysis and genealogy

The use of DNA information in genealogy studies is new, but the results to date show great promise.  The Y chromosome of human DNA is currently the chief genetic component used for the study of family pedigrees.  This chromosome is passed directly from every father to all his sons with only rare and minor mutations over the generations.   Within this chromosome are many distinctive markers.  When individuals having the same surname also have the same Y-Chromosome markers the probability of a common ancestor becomes nearly 100%.  

  Long ago we determined from public and family written records that we had descended through eight generations from a Thomas Davenport of Dorchester,  Massachusetts who had died in 1678.  We also discovered  that Thomas had produced five sons and that each of those sons had parallel chains of male descendents.  But were those records correct?  There was still a need to prove conclusively that each of these chains of Davenport family descent were unbroken by adoption or pregnancies conceived outside  marriage bonds.  The availability of DNA analysis made such proofs possible.

This year we had the accuracy of the  recorded linkages verified by Y- DNA analyses.   Laboratory results for three of the five lines of male descent which began with the three sons, including our own, show perfect matches thus decisively proving that Thomas was indeed a  common ancestor for each of the currently living descendents.  A fourth descendent of another son of Thomas differed only slightly.   Any questions of unproven parentage can now be put aside.  

Conclusions now possible from the DNA laboratory work still in progress extend far beyond the descendents of Thomas Davenport.  As might be expected,  Thomas himself was very closely related to other Davenports in even earlier generations.  Particularly noteworthy is a large group of Davenport's who live or lived in North Carolina and also  the descendents of the Reverend John Davenport who founded New Haven and Yale University.   The study continues....

December 2003                                                                                       BACK