Whitmore Surname Project:Latest Update

September, 2007

Since the last update of these pages we have added three new participants to the project, and have received updated results for two participants who were reported at the time of our last update. The summary results page has been updated, and you may reach it by clicking on the link.

While we are still waiting for results on one of our new participants, Kit 96435, we expect that he will match the R1b haplogroup family of Thomas Wetmore of Middletown, Connecticut. He is being tested for 37 markers.

The other two new participants also belong to haplogroup R1b. One of these, Kit T092091, was tested at Relative Genetics on 18 markers, only 14 of which correspond to our basic 37 markers from FTDNA. He is the son of one of our present participants and matches his father except for a single mutation on marker GATA-H4.

The other new participant, Kit 94211, although he is haplogroup R1b1, matches no one else in our project. In fact, although he has tested to 37 markers, he has no close matches to anyone in the FTDNA database except for a few at 12 markers, not at all unusual for this haplogroup. His surname is Whitmer, and he is descended from Peter Witmer, b. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1737. The surname and the location seem to connect his to our E3b family, but Chuck Whitmer wrote in July that ?Peter's background, which I believe is German and Lutheran, rather than the Swiss and Mennonite of my own line. It is amusing that both the Swiss and German lines of Witmers lived side by side in Manor Township, Lancaster County, PA, for so long, but as far as I know are completely unrelated.? The DNA results seem to confirm Chuck?s statement.

Kit 70820, an English Whitmore tentatively assigned to haplogroup G at the time of our last update, has been tested to 25 markers and SNP tested to confirm his haplogroup as G2. Not surprisingly, with this relatively unusual haplogroup, he matches no other members of our project.

Results are back for our English participant with the pedigree extending back to the time of the Norman Conquest. Unfortunately for all of us who might like to connect to his family tree, he is not a match for any of the rest of us. In fact, based on the 12 marker test which was run on his sample, he matches only two other men in the FTDNA database! My own matches at 12 markers exceed 400.

Since only one of the three new and updated haplotypes results in a change or addition to any of our family groups only the summary results page noted above has been changed at this time.

Two other changes on the DNA front may be of interest to participants in this project. First, Ancestry/the Generations Network has acquired the database of Relative Genetics and, using the Sorenson labs will begin to operate as genealogy DNA testing company this fall. This may result in a rapid increase in the number of genealogists using DNA testing for genealogical purposes, which will, of course increase the possibility of matches for everyone.

Second, we are working on some changes in our web pages and the way we maintain them, which we hope will ease the efforts required to update them. We hope to have something to show you by the end of October.

Your Project Administrators,

Ann, Nancy and Hal