We currently have 25 tested participants.
All males with the surname Acree are encouraged to participate, particularly those living in the U.S. Those with close surname variations (including Acre, Acrey, Acrea, Akrie and Akre) are invited to participate to assess the extent of common origins, which have already been found. Males with the surnames Acres, Ackers and Akers, particularly those living in the British Isles, are invited to join a separate project in the U.K. that is specifically intended to examine kinship among them, in connection with One Name Study. See: The Acres Surname Project
This project compares the unique Y-Chromosome (Y-DNA) profile segments that fathers pass intact to their sons, which remain basically stable from generation to generation, with only minor, infrequent mutational changes:
Females may participate by convincing an Acree-surnamed male relative (grandfather, father, brother, uncle or cousin) to provide requisite Y-DNA for testing as a representative of her line. Our several female participants, as interested family historians, have arranged and financed tests of their surrogates.
This project may provide physical evidence that will further validate Acree lineages found through documentary research. It may help those who have sought to extend their Acree lines back to colonial-era America, by suggesting ancestral focal points for further research. The efforts of those who have been successful in establishing personal descent from colonial-era Acrees may be assisted by evidence of genetic commonality or disparity among project participants, with resulting implications for extended ancestry.
While the Acree surname is relatively uncommon, it is more prevalent than many suppose, with favorable incidence for our DNA project. According to the census, there were 7035 individuals with Acree/Acre/Acres/Acrey/Akre surnames resident in the U.S. in the year 2000, nearly two-thirds of whom spelled their name Acree. The more numerous Acker/Aker/Eaker individuals appear to have primarily Germanic/Scandinavian origins. That surname cluster, however, also arose independently in the British Isles, where it may have been related historically to the evolution of the Acree surname, which has seldom been spelled with two e's there.
Most of the Acrees who were born in the U.S. and have successfully traced their early paternal ancestry descend from six 18th century residents of colonial Virginia and Maryland who sometimes spelled their name Acre and appeared in documents using that spelling and others that were phonetically similar. These men were:
Joshua was the son of an earlier William Acree (c1710-c1767) of Hanover Co., Virginia, whose ancestry has not been established. That earlier William was probably also the father of William, Isaac, John and Abraham. (Ancestral trees have been posted elsewhere on the internet that affirm these father-son relationships but lack supporting evidence.)
William Acree from Maryland was unrelated to the five progenitors from Virginia. He may have been the son of a Quaker family who immigrated to the Philadelphia area and moved with coreligionists to successive Quaker settlements in Frederick and Guilford counties before he moved on to Kentucky.
It is believed that some descendants of Colonial-era Aker/Acker families eventually changed the spelling of their names to Acree, causing two noteworthy immigrants with those surnames, who settled in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, to become additional Acree progenitors, as well as progenitors of far more numerous descendants who kept their original spellings. The first was William Akers (c1640-1715), of English or German ethnicity, who purchased land there before 1698. Several of his great-grandchildren moved into the Virginia piedmont by way of Pennsylvania and apparently became forefathers of the Acrees who crossed the mountains into West Virginia in the early 19th century, when migration toward the Northwest Territory began. The second was Peter Acker, Sr. (c1730-1815), possibly related to William Akers, who came to the same area of New Jersey from Germany about 1750 and migrated to South Carolina before the Revolutonary War. Several of Peter's grandchildren moved on to Alabama.
This project was initiated by its coordinator in August 2006 with the advantage of having identified the genetic profile of "Cashie" John Acree, Sr. of Bertie Co., North Carolina (mentioned above). This "ancestral haplotype" was found through an exact match of 46 Y-DNA marker values between two distant Acree cousins who had independently traced their lineages to John Sr. from his second and third sons, John Jr. and William. The match, considered newsworthy, was the subject of a promotional press release. Click the link below to see it:
Since then, the project has attracted the participation of the most active Acree-family researchers and achieved considerable success in pursuing its objectives. See Acree Project History. It has found that John Sr., William and Abraham were closely related. Documentary confirmation is unavailable, but, from the test results and circumstantial evidence, it is evident that they were indeed sons of the above-mentioned William Acree of Hanover Co., Virginia.
Additionally, this same shared halpotype, which includes a rare, distinctive "micro-variant" allele, has been found in two men named Williamson, who had an unexplained orphan in their 19th-century lineage and joined our project upon discovering their genetic Acree connection. It has also been found in two men named Brown and Collier, who probably had common ancestors with our matching Acrees sometime ago. Contemporary existence of the same haplotype in the U.K. has been found in two residents of northwest England named Hall and Willoughby - supporting the presumed British ethnicity of the "Virginia Acrees."
Here is a depiction of how successive Acree fathers passed this nearly identical genetic profile along - from three presumed sons of William Acree of Hanover Co., Virginia, through several generations, down to the majority of our project participants (in blue):
A confirmed minority haplotype has also emerged, resulting from the matching test results of two descendants of William Acree (1752-1833) of Wayne Co., Kentucky (mentioned above). Here is a depiction of how the two participants (in blue) descend from that progenitor, as distant cousins:
The British ethnicity of these "Maryland Acrees" has been supported by a relatively good match of these participants' haplotype with that of a UK resident named Akers, whose paternal ancestors lived in Oxfordshire in the late 18th century. A common ancestor, with a surname approximating his, probably lived in northwest England a few hundred years earlier.
Our project is thus strengthening the case that most Acrees living in the U.S. descend from William Acree of Hanover Co., Virginia, while many others descend from William Acree of Wayne Co., Kentucky. Future participants whose test results match the majority or minority haplotypes will be confirmed as belonging to the Virginia or Kentucky families. Specific descent must always be determined through documentary evidence. Future participants whose test results do not match either of these two established ancestral haplotypes will provide alternative genetic profiles that will imply other immigrant ancestors.
Unanticipated test results may be unwelcome to participants. This physical evidence may cast doubt on well-documented Acree lines of descent that were previously considered firmly established, by indicating that an informal adoption or an undisclosed illegitimacy of birth probably occurred in one or more generations within a lineage. These so-called "non-paternity events" were (and remain) far more common than we generally appreciate. Their frequency rate in our culture is estimated to be about two percent in each generation.
The test is simple, painless and private. Participants will receive a kit in the mail, swab inside their cheeks with cotton tips provided, and submit these specimens by mail.
Because the several DNA testing laboratories look at different sets of markers, one laboratory has been selected to ensure consistency of results: Sorenson Genomics, which uses an effective set of markers that are conveniently reported in numerical order, renders precise marker values ("alleles") that conform to industry standards, double-checks its findings, enables comparatively favorable pricing, and provides the best turn-around time from specimen submission to the communication of results. Relative Genetics, which has employed the Sorenson laboratory and provided excellent service to the project since its inception, has been acquired by DNA Ancestry, which retains the partnership with Sorenson.
Just as a comparison of one person to another is aided by focusing on a greater number of characteristics, a comparison of genetic profiles is improved by testing a greater number of markers (at greater expense). DNA Ancestry offers Y-DNA tests for 33 or 46 markers. The latter is recommended for the purposes of our project. Participants must pay for their tests, but will benefit from a 20% discount when testing for 46 markers. The coordinator is unaffiliated with DNA Ancestry and receives no material compensation for his efforts.
You will be notified of your results a few weeks later. They will be a series of values associated with the markers for which you have been tested, which will be displayed on an "Acree group" webpage at the DNA Ancestry website - permitting comparison with the results of other participants. Our group's webpages at DNA Ancestry (completely separate from this website) are all password protected. In the interests of privacy, alphanumeric identifiers replace our names there, as well as here at this website.
Apart from project participation, Acree family historians are invited to direct queries regarding their indefinite or undetermined lineage to the project coordinator, who maintains an extensive off-line data base.
by Charles Acree. All rights reserved.