The Tapscott Project has been set up at Family Tree DNA (http://www.familytreedna.com/) and I am hoping that other Tapscotts will participate. I now have the results of my Y-DNA37 test (37 markers) and have uploaded them to YSearch (http://www.ysearch.org/). Go to either site and search under the Tapscott name. My haplogroup and that of others in the Henry ("The Immigrant") Tapscott line is R-M269 (R1b1a2). This is an extremely common haplogroup, which means that results of 12-marker tests will be highly questionable. A 37-marker test will probably be OK, though I have upped requested that my testing be expanded to 67 markers.
The results of the Y-DNA test are already exciting and I have just scratched the surface.
First, I have a very close (1-step difference) match with another Tapscott. He is descended from the Capt. Henry line and I am descended from the Edney line. These two lines converge at the first Henry, The Immigrant. This "confirms" that our tracing of the two lines back to the original Henry is correct. Now we need a descendant of James, brother of Capt. Henry and Edney to confirm the third line.
Second, I have a very close match, again 1 step, with a line of mixed-race Fords in Jamaica (who have been traced to a John Ford born abt 1753.. As many of you know, in 1696 a William Tapscott was transported to Jamaica as a prisoner following the failure of the Monmouth Rebellion in England. He came from the Somerset area and has always been suspected of being a relative of Henry the Immigrant, possibly even his father (though there is no proof). It now seems quite possible that the Fords are descended from William Tapscott (with a name change as was often the case in interracial relationships). Whatever the reason, it is almost certain that the Virginia Tapscotts are related to the Jamaican Fords through an all-male connection.
