Pepper DNA Project

One of our participants who was originally thought to belong to Lineage 4, the Samuel Pepper line, has been shown to actually be an entirely separate family. He was an exact 12 marker match with Lineage 4, but when 37 marker results came in for him and another Lineage 4 member, it became clear that he was totally unrelated to Lineage 4. This shows us once again that testing 12 markers is inadequate. It is important that all persons test as many markers as they can reasonably afford to test.

The Robert Pepper line has matching DNA results for 3 participants. It is now clear who are the true descendants of Robert Pepper.

We have received the DNA results from 3 new participants. One of them is from a new line of Pepper. This is the eighth line of Pepper. The progenitor for this line is John Frederick Pepper of Kentucky and Tennessee. He is believed to be of German ancestors, possibly a Pfeffer.

One of the new participants was a match for one of the Robert Pepper of Roxbury descendants. The match came from a participant in England. There was a mutation on one marker. This means that they probably shared a common ancestor prior to Robert.

The other new participant was a match to Lineage 3, the John Peppers line. He had a mutation in one of his markers. He shared a common ancestor with the other John Peppers descendants but probably prior to John. There are five DNA project participants that belong to this line.

The results for these new participants can be viewed on the Results and Analysis pages of this web site. Clicking on the kit number or the name on the Results page will take you to their respective descendant's lists and ancestry charts.

Two persons have been tested now, whose paper trail leads to Robert Pepper, originally of England, who died in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, but their Y-DNA does not match. Results will remain inconclusive until more descendants of Robert Pepper are tested. We are seeking more descendants of the Robert Pepper family to test in order to determine which of the persons tested actually has Robert Pepper's Y-DNA.

A descendant of our first Canadian Pepper has been tested. His ancestor was Joseph Pepper. We do not know what province Joseph was born in. He did move to Essex County, New York and died there. If you are looking for your Canada Peppers, you may want to be tested to compare with these results.

Our Second International Pepper has joined the project. He is currently living in New Zealand. He is believed to be related to the Pepper member from Australia. The results are in and he is related to our Australian Pepper. This is another success story for DNA testing. There was a mismatch on one marker indicating that a mutation had taken place. They can determine how closely they are related by testing additional markers.

We have a new participant in the DNA project. This Pepper has been documented back to Robert Pepper of Roxbury, Massachusetts, who arrived in America in 1634. Robert is believed to come to America from England. The reason for joining the Pepper project is to trace Robert back to his ancestors in England. Many of our members have been trying to link their Pepper ancestors to the Peppers that arrived into the USA. It turns out that the Robert Pepper line is a completely new line of Peppers, our sixth line. While this is a little disappointing, it is great news for those seeking their Pepper ancestry. Now there is a better than ever chance of finding a match among our participants. This line is very well documented and it will be easy to place new Pepper matches on this tree.

Family Tree DNA has introduced the highest-resolution Y-DNA test in the world, with 67 markers, and has reduced the prices of the 25 and 37-marker tests. If you are wondering if you should order any of these tests, please contact one of the administrators on the Contact page for assistance.

Family Tree DNA is now offering for its customers who already tested their Y-DNA, a series of tests called "Deep Clade tests" which go deeper into different Haplogroups. Haplogroups are represented by an alternating series of letters and numbers and are used to define a large cluster of people who share a common deep ancestry. All of the Peppers tested so far belong to Haplogroup R1b which is the most common group in the world. R1b descendants originated mostly from Western Europe. The value of a Deep Clade Panel test is to identify your twig of the Y DNA tree, and then to use this information to consult the scientific literature to determine the geographic locations identified for your twig. This test would be valuable for those who want to know from what part of the world their ancestors had originated.