ACREE SURNAME DNA PROJECT

Progress Report for 2019

GROWTH

Our project gained five participants in 2019, raising our total membership to 96.

The table below displays how our participants, by surname in the rows, fit into genetic groups in the columns. The surname totals show that 55 of us spell our name Acree, that 21 have variants of the Acree name, and that 20 have entirely different surnames. The latter have joined our project because, in most instances, their test results associate them with these particular genetic groups, indicating that they share unidentified ancestors with Acree and Akers families who lived several hundred years ago.

SELF-TESTING

Our project's growth has fluctuated considerably since its inception in 2006. This year's growth has been relatively slow. There is no way to estimate the number of participants who may join us next year, but there is a new factor at play. Our new-found ability to invite men to test their personal Y-DNA privately, entirely on their own, to verify patrilineal descent has, predictably, reduced their incentive to join our project itself initially or subsequently.

This self-testing ability has been significantly extended and enhanced this year as a result of additional "Big-Y" testing on the part of our participants, which has led us further toward replacing conventional Y-STR testing with Y-SNP testing for most of our comparative efforts. As previously explained, Y-SNP testing is not only reducing the cost of testing, but it is permitting unambiguous comparison of hierarchical, sequential, cumulative Y-SNP mutations that are definitive, unlike the 37-111 Y-STR marker strings that most of us have tested initially.

When a prospective participant wants to verify his descent from William Acree (c1710-c1767), our majority progenitor, he can test simply for the possession of a pertinent Y-SNP at a cost of merely $20 at the YSEQ firm or $40 at FTDNA.  When he wants to verify descent more specifically from William’s son, John Acree Sr. (c1735-1814), or descent from one of our other prominent progenitors - William Acree of Maryland (1752-1833), William Akers of New Jersey (c1650-1715), or Henry Oldaker of New Jersey (born c1708) - he can test for Y-SNP singletons pertaining strictly to those progenitors.

I have no way of knowing who has tested for individual Y-SNPs unless/until a tester informs me of his success or failure. But YSEQ statistics attest to the fact that men are indeed taking these tests alone, while remaining mostly anonymous, and that’s fine.

As I said last year, our project has progressed to the point that we have more to gain, with respect to the definition of our distant origins and modern detailed relationships to one another, through extensive Y-SNP testing of existing participants than we do through the recruitment of new participants who take basic tests.

ANCESTRAL ORIGINS IN BRITAIN AND EUROPE

I again emphasize that the "Big-Y," the most exhaustive Y-SNP test offered by FTDNA, which 19 of our project participants have now taken, is helping us (1) to discern modern branches within our Acree/Akers family trees, (2) to delineate unique 'family" Y-SNP mutations that are found only within the past few generations of our individual patrilineal lines that will be inherited by our children, and (3) to gain greater insight into our distant ancestral origins in Britain and earlier on the European continent.

With regard to early origins, we've found significantly this year that both the Akers and Oldakers of New Jersey probably descend from the same, but yet unidentified, Scottish border clan. Also, we've become more convinced that the Acrees of Maryland descend from an Akers family who descended earlier from an Akridge family - most likely with origins also in the English/Scottish border area, where we believe the Acrees of Virginia, too, once lived. Specifics regarding years, places and the families they left behind remain elusive.

This year, I wrote a second article for the Journal of One-Name Studies -  this time on the subject of "extraneous" surnames (those included in the "Others" row in the table above). Its essential message is that we have no idea how or when the Acree/Akers surnames we are investigating originated.

The Acrees of Virginia may ultimately descend not from a family having an early version of the Acree name, such as Dacre, but rather from a 14th-17th century Brown, Ashley, Collier, Peel, Wells, or some other family that matches us closely genetically. Similarly, the Acrees/Akers/Akridges of Maryland may descend from a medieval Cox, Phillips, Shufflebottom, or other closely-matching family. The Akers and Oldakers of New Jersey, as well as our Argyle participant in England, likely descend ultimately from an unidentified, differently-named Scottish clan. I doubt that we will ever be able to define the inter-relationships among the various families involved, but, with the help of ongoing analysis of Big-Y testing, we're gradually acquiring a better handle on the time frames involved.

So, Y-SNPs are capable of identifying unique personal and “family” mutations, while simultaneously providing verification of recent patrilineal ancestors, a mosaic of definite medieval connections with diversely-surnamed individuals, and a fascinating geographic and cultural panorama of patrilineal ancestors who lived long ago.  If you can afford it, the comprehensive Big-Y test (on sale this week) is a marvel, offering you a special position in genetic history and granting our project accumulating insights.

FINAL NOTE

Last year, I mentioned that we had come close to identifying the American soldier who, while serving in the Pacific theater during World War II, became the biological grandfather of the daughter of a Pacific-island immigrant, who had discovered several Acrees within her autosomal DNA matches. This year, she and her relatives were able to identify her grandfather conclusively, leading to a family reunion of descendants.