Fauquier County Tapscotts, once again

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.