ACREE SURNAME DNA PROJECT

Progress Report for 2021

GROWTH

It’s been a slow year, perhaps due in part to the pandemic. Our project gained only two participants, raising our total tested membership to 104.

Both of our newcomers have the Acree surname. They tested for possession of the distinguishing Y-SNP called A2156, receiving positive results that confirmed them as descendants of William Acree (c1710-c1767) of Hanover Co., Virginia. One of them tested additionally for the Y-SNP called A2155, receiving positive results that confirmed him specifically as a descendant of William’s son, John Acree, Sr. (c1735-1814) of Bertie Co., North Carolina.

The table below summarizes how our participants, listed by surname in the rows, fit into identified genetic groups in the columns. Those in the Singles column lack matches. It shows in the final column that 62 of us have the name Acree, that a total of 21 have variants of the Acree name, and that 21 others have entirely different surnames. The latter have joined our project because their test results associate them with our genetic groups, as shown, indicating that they share unidentified ancestors who were born a couple centuries before our known Acree/Akers/etc. progenitors.

SUMMARY OF OUR PROJECT’S MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS DURING ITS 15 YEARS OF EXISTENCE

Our Project, which combines DNA testing with genealogical research, has concluded that the surnames, Acree, Akers, Akridge, Acra, and other variants were acquired historically by very distantly-related men, in varied circumstances, within the British Isles.

We have confirmed that most men having the Surname Acree itself descend from the above William Acree of Virginia, through his five sons (making them “Virginia Acrees”), and that a substantial minority (“Maryland Acrees”) descend from a different William Acree (1752-1833) of Frederick Co., Maryland, who was a grandson of William E. Akridge (1702-1770). Based upon Y-DNA evidence and family lore, we have concluded that these two progenitors both came from families that originated in the English/Scottish border area.

We have discovered distinguishing Y-DNA “Y-SNP” mutations that have been inherited by descendants of these two William Acrees, as well as a Y-SNP for descendants of a New Jersey branch of the Akers family who descend from William Akers ( c1650-1715). These Y-SNP mutations enable men having the Acree and Akers surnames to test privately, or through the project if they wish, to confirm their descent from these three progenitors.

Participation of several Project members’ in “Big-Y” testing at the FTDNA testing firm has enabled us to discern, as a result of rapidly-developing "Ancient DNA" findings made public, that descendants of William Acree of Virginia and the non-Acrees who closely match them (surnamed Ashley, Brown, Collier, Hall, Peel, Wells, Williamson, and Willoughby) all descend from Norse Vikings who, we believe, migrated to the English/Scottish border area via the western coast of Scotland a thousand years ago.

For posterity, our Project's extensive genealogical data base of nearly 4,000 individuals with Acree or Acree-variant surnames has been integrated within "The Family Tree," an effort by the Family Search organization (maintained by the LDS Church) to create a worldwide ancestral "wikitree," derived from widespread sources and individual family-history contributions, that is freely shared and contains over a billion deceased individuals who are being progressively inter-related for everyone to see.

PRIMARY PROJECT OBJECTIVES THAT REMAIN UNFULFILLED

We do not know the circumstances of the arrival in America of any of the above progenitors, who their parents were, or where they lived before immigrating. Only breakthroughs in genealogical research can resolve this deficiency.

Because few male African-American Acrees have tested through our Project, we do not know whether the majority of their enslaved nineteenth-century paternal ancestors were born to Acree fathers or whether the majority adopted their surname from the plantations on which they were held prior to the Civil War. It is evident that both situations occurred.

While we have learned through Y-DNA testing that the West Virginia and Florida Acrees descend from William Acree of Virginia, we do not know for certain which of his five sons were their respective forefathers. Genealogical research has failed to identify intervening generations. Big-Y testing of a West Virginia Acree participant and a Florida Acree participant might resolve this matter.

A PERSONAL NOTE

I’ve been busy this year completing a private memoir and publishing a novel (unrelated to this Project) entitled Nothing Personal - available at Amazon.com.