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DNA newsletter,
Facts & Genes
from Family Tree
DNA
far:
- Proved that the descendants of William
born 1690 are related to the descendants
of John born 1780. This was not
previously known. - Determined that Trefethens in the U.S. are
likely related to the Trevathans in the U.S. - Found that many Trevethans worldwide
are not related to U.S. Trevathans
Goals
- Find a living Trevethan with known roots
in Cornwall that is related to the U.S.
Trevathans - Have more detailed testing done of U.S.
Trevathans so that the exact relationship
of John to William can be verified. - Identify the relationship of any U.S.
Trevathan whose ancestry is not known.
to the general fund
for the Trevathan
DNA project so that
more can be tested.
DNA Projects
for your other
ancestral lines.
You probably know that a DNA can be used to connect a
tissue sample to an individual; and that the DNA of two
people can be compared to determine that those two
people are related. DNA could also determine whether
you are related to a suspected ancestor several
generations ago -- except that a sample from that person
is not usually available for testing.
Alternately, the DNA of two people alive today can be
tested to determine if they are related; that is, whether they
are related to some common ancestor in the past. If so
and if it is known from paper records that the first person
descended from William born 1690, then it may be
possible to determine whether the second did also.
.
The most common test done for genealogical purposes is
“Y-DNA” which tests selected DNA markers that usually
do not change from father to son to son to son. For this
test, those tested must have a male to male to male
connection to the common ancestor which usually means
that they must have the same surname.
- DNA testing has
shown that nearly all
U.S. Trevathans we
know of are related.
This could not be
determined from
paper records. We
will learn a lot more
as more people are
tested.
to roughly identify family tree structure.
If you are a male with the name Trevathan, Trevethan, or Trefethen, please consider being
tested. If you are a female interested in these lines, why not convince a male relative with
one of these names to be tested or even pay for the test for him? If you have had the basic
test, consider upgrading to the more detailed test. Much of what has been learned came
from these detailed tests.
Overview of what we have learned
The U.S. Trevathan descendants of William born about 1690 in Cornwall and of John born 1780 in South
Carolina are related with 99.97% probability; and there is a 97% probability that John is actually a
descendant of William. Thus all of the U.S. Trevathans that we know about are related to each other with a
maximum likely separation of sixth cousins at the 8th generation in the U.S. Older Trevathans alive today are
often in that eighth generation. This was the first goal of the DNA project and is a very major result.
The Trevethans that have been tested – one in Cornwall, one in the U.S., and one in New Zealand (now
Trevathan) – are all related to each other but not to the U.S. Trevathans.
A Trefethen who has been tested has the same basic test result as the U.S. Trevathans and is possibly
related. This is a very interesting discovery.
Status
Fifteen people have now been tested in the Trevathan DNA project. All of those tested match one of these
two lines:
Trevathan/Trefethen Group 1
Twelve of people in the project are U.S. Trevathans. Nine of these are known by paper records to be
descendants of William Trevethan who was born about 1690 in Cornwall England and came to America by
1711. The spelling of William’s name was changed to Trevathan in the early 1700’s when he lived in Virginia
and North Carolina. The other three U.S. Trevathans are known by paper records to be descendants of John
Trevathan, b. 1780 in South Carolina. As far as we have been able to determine, all Trevathans in the U.S.
are a descendant of one of these two.
Nine of these ten had identical basic (12 marker) tests. The other person’s DNA result was off by one step in
the 12 marker test. That result is still close enough to verify a blood relationship.
Paper records have never been found to relate John to any other Trevathan, so we never knew whether the
descendants of these two were related. However, the DNA test results now show that there is a 97% chance
that they had a common ancestor within the past 300 years which is approximately within the time since
William came to America. Thus it is nearly certain that all of these Trevathans descended from William.
There is a 99.97% chance that the two lines had a common ancestor within the past 600 years which removes
any reasonable doubt that William and John are related. This means that all the Trevathans in the U.S. that
we know of are related. The testing that has been done gives some clue to the identity of the most recent
common ancestor to these two, but more tested is needed to determine who that is.
One person in the U.S. with the name Trefethen had the basic DNA test and matched the U.S. Trevathan
line. That means that he and probably other U.S. Trefethens may be related to this U.S. Trevathan line.
Statistically there is a 91% chance that he shared a common ancestor with the U.S. Trevathans within the past
600 years. We will know more when one or more Trefethens has the more detailed tests. The ancestor of
the Trefethens in the U.S. came to the America from Cornwall and was in New Hampshire by 1687. You can
see the Trefethen genealogy on their web site. You may know the name from a popular California winery.
The first 12 DNA markers of this group are:
Trevathan/Trevethan Group 2
Three other people have been tested: one Trevethan who lives in Liskeard, Cornwall; one Trevethan who
lives in the U.S.; and one Trevathan who lives in New Zealand (whose ancestors changed the name from
Trevethan as did the U.S. Trevathans.) All three of these have had only the basic DNA test, but the results
for that basic test match each other which means that there is a 91% probability that these three had a
common ancestor within the past 600 years. That is, we can assume that they are related to each other. In
fact, I am told that paper records exist that show a relationship of at least two of them.
The first 12 DNA markers of this group are:
The people in Grop 1 (U.S. Trevathan/Trefethen) are apparently not related to the people in Group 2 (New
Zealand Trevathan and Trevethan). Statistically there is only a 5% chance that the two lines had a common
ancestor within the past 600 years. Thus the ancestors of the U.S. Trevathans and the ancestors of these
Trevethans apparently created the Trevethan name (or some earlier spelling) for their homestead and
adopted it as their surname completely independently of each other.
Will you participate in the DNA project?
If your name is Trevathan, Trevethan, or Trefethen, do you know which of the lines you are a part of? With
the large amount of paper information available, there may be records available to tell you that immediately.
If you are male with one of these names, please consider being tested. If you are a female interested in the
genealogy of these lines, please consider convincing and/or sponsoring a male relative with the family name
to be tested. We will learn more as more people are tested and as more people convert to the more detailed
test. In fact, we can probably learn more from each person who is tested with the detailed test. Very close
relatives like fathers and sons or brothers would likely have the exact same 37 marker results; but testing
even those close relatives can be useful by eliminating them as the location of a mutation.
It is very easy to be tested: go to the Family Tree DNA Company web site. Find the Trevathan project and
sign up, or just go directly to the sign up form. Choose the “Y-DNA – Male 12 marker paternal test” initially
but consider upgrading to the 37 marker test after it is verified that the 12 marker test matches one of the
lines. The basic 12 marker test costs $99 plus $2 postage and the upgrade to the 37 marker test costs $149
additional and does not require a new sample. You can pay by credit card when you sign up or by check
returned with your sample. (Alternately if you want to immediately order the more detailed test to save some
money over the cost of the two tests ordered individually, choose the “Y-DNA37 – Male 37 marker paternal
test” when you first sign up.) The testing company will send you a mouth swab which you use to wipe inside
your cheek and send it back.
Having the more detailed test is very important. Most of the detailed statistics we have are possible only
because of the three people who have had the detailed test.
If you are want help signing up, let us know.
Surveys have shown that there are several reasons people don’t participate in DNA testing for genealogy:
- Don’t understand the testing – this can all be pretty confusing so you need to do a little reading to
understand it. There is a great deal of information available on the Family Tree DNA web site. at www.
familytreedna.com. Also the DNA newsletter has a lot of interesting information. - Concern about privacy – privacy is always a concern today. The testing company commits to using
your sample only for this genealogical DNA testing and to safekeeping your sample; and they have
demonstrated a good track record. You can read more about their security policies at the Family Tree
DNA Company's web site. This genealogical DNA testing cannot be used for medical or identification
purposes and it cannot explicitly tell of father-child relationships. - Don’t think it will help with genealogy – we have already obtained the very important result that the
descendants of William and of John are related -- and with 97% probability that common ancestor was
in the U.S. When more people are tested we might be able to identify that common ancestor’s
generation and father. We also know much more than we did about the relationships of Trevethans
and Trevathans and found that Trefethens are likely cousins. - Think that the likelihood of breaks in the blood line will make results meaningless – when there are
breaks in the blood line of a person tested, he will not match either of the groups (though he might not
match for other reasons also). When that occurs, the results will not be used. That is why the basic
(12 marker) test is suggested first so that the individual can verify his basic relationship before
converting to the more detailed test. - Cost is too high – yes the cost can seem like a lot depending on your level of interest in genealogy. If
you want to be tested but cannot afford the cost, maybe a relative who is interested in genealogy can
help. - Not interested in genealogy – but will you do it to help those who are?
If you have any questions or want more information, please let us know.
Some interesting information about the DNA of group 1
Here is what the president of the testing company had to say about these results in the first group: “on this
profile [DNA test result] only 21 of 26,000 test takers match you guys. 6 are surnamed Hurst, 8 in your group.
and 4 Chamberlains...the rarity of the signature is the 14 at DYS 393 instead of the normal 13. It is VERY
rare for R1b western Europeans males. I think all 8 of you are related.” The other three with the same basic
test results are named Cotton, Bond and Arnold.
The Hursts mentioned live in the Midwest U.S. with ancestors in England. I do not have information on the
Chamberlins or on Cotton, Bond, or Arnold. Sometime in the last several hundred years, possibly before the
time when people started using surnames, we probably shared a common ancestor with all of these. Donis
Trevathan Bettis has done a lot of research in Cornwall; and she has information that traces our Trevethan
ancestors back to about 1500 with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
In addition, there are a number of people that are just one off our 12 marker result. That is, they match 11 of
the 12 markers in the basic test. Their surnames are Beckendorf, Carpenter, Caudle, Durham, Ferguson,
Forbes, George, Hughes, Leland-Maugham, Macon, Maddox, Nelson, Nichols, Price, and Sisson. When the
people in this group list pre-U.S. ancestors, they say that their ancestors were from England except one who
says his ancestor is from Germany and one whose ancestor was from France.
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vernon@trevathan.info
P. O. Box 37064, St. Louis, MO 63141
revised June 8, 2006
Copyright © 2006 Vernon L. Trevathan. All rights reserved
