I recently received an email from a descendant of residents of Fauquier County, Virginia, having the name "Tapscott." The email noted that some Fauquier County Tapscotts had been tested and that other potential candidates would be contacted for testing. My response, slightly modified, may be of interest to others.
Remember that, because of female members of
all reasonable descendancy lines, yDNA testing will almost certainly show no
Tapscott matches for Fauquier County Tapscott descendants. Only autosomal
testing has promise to show a genetic relationship between Fauquier County
Tapscotts and James/Ezekiel Tapscott (members of the Edney line).
I have been autosomal tested on both Ancestry.com
and FamilyTreeDNA. So far I have found no autosomal matches between myself and people
originating in Fauquier County who show Tapscott names in their ancestry. This
is true even though I have found several matches with non-Fauquier County
Tapscott descendants on the Edney line, one going all the way back to the
original Henry, eight generations! There are three possibilities: (1) Potential
matches thus far are too far back with too few and too small identical DNA sequences
showing up to be declared a match. (2) There is no genetic relationship between
any Fauquier County Tapscott and the descendants of Henry the Immigrant (though
I believe there is). (3) People undergoing testing are not providing
information on their ancestry when they take their tests, something I discuss
at the end of this email.
I suggest that if your cousins, etc. do
autosomal testing through FamilyTreeDNA ("Family Finder"), they join
the "Tapscott Project" hosted by FamilyTree. Joining a project costs nothing
and can be done through the FamilyTreeDNA website. Joining the "Tapscott
Project" allows me, as project administrator, to more easily check for
matches.
I also suggest that if they test through
Ancestry.com, they download their results to FamilyTreeDNA and then join the "Tapscott
Project." The download is done through the Family Finder Transfer Program
(see https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/imports/transfer-autosomal-ancestry/family-tree-dna-family-finder-transfer-program/).
Unfortunately it does cost ($69 last time I checked), but the charge is worth
it. Transfer not only allows joining a project, it greatly expanding the
database of potential matches.
Whether they test through Ancestry or
through FamilyTreeDNA, if people you are in contact with would send me the test
name they used, I can easily check for matches. Some people use strange test names
that have no relation with the submitter's actual name. I have no problem with
your giving out my email address.
Unlike many of those tested, I use my
actual name for my test results. The name for my Ancestry.com results is "Robert
Tapscott" and for FamilyTreeDNA it's "Robert Edwin Tapscott."
Thus, your contacts can quickly check for matches with me. (They should also
search the name "Tapscott" in their match results.)
As a final note. It
is absolutely essential that individuals undergoing testing include a ancestral
tree (even if it is inaccurate) or at least (in the case of FamilyTreeDNA) a
list of ancestral surnames (a list that includes "Tapscott,"
otherwise why be concerned with Tapscott matches?). Without a family tree or a
list of descendants is is almost impossible to find Tapscott matches. If a
person's tree is kept private or if there is no tree, they will not show up
when I search for my Tapscott matches. When people make trees private they greatly
hinder effective use of DNA testing. They might just as well save their money
by not doing the testing. One of my major frustrations is people who for some
reason or other feel that names of their fathers, mothers, grandfathers, etc.
should be kept secret. Why? All it does is greatly reduce the potential for
collaboration in family history research. My name is Robert Edwin Tapscott, my
mother was Mary Emaline Imle and my father was Glenn Daniel Tapscott, and I
don't care if the whole world knows it. Giving the names of ancestors is not
equivalent to passing out social security or bank account numbers.