DNA & Buckingham County Surnames

Many of us are interested or involved in DNA projects involving Buckingham surnames.  Projects I follow include Chambers, Harris, Holman, and Bondurant.  If you haven’t considered DNA research, take a look at this Bondurant sample site.  http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/bondurant

Last month, Bill Davidson commented on the on-going success of the Davidson DNA project:

The six or seven members of my overall Davidson family who have taken the Y chromosome DNA test have been “combined” into DNA “Family 10″ at http://www.davidsongenes.org (which uses Family Tree DNA to do the actual testing). My family included the Edward (who was once a constable in Buckingham Co., VA), David, William (William, Senior, but perhaps not William, Junior….see more below) and Charles Davidson (who was a son of Edward) who all appeared on the 1764 Buckingham tithe list. There was also yet a third William Davidson on that tithe list, and he was shown in the home of David Davidson….and I suspect that he was an adult son of David Davidson.

DNA testing shows, however, that some members of the unrelated DNA “Family 7″ Davidson/Davison family also eventually lived in Buckingham (apparently by around 1793). The John Davidson who appeared on the 1810 Buckingham census was an apparent member of DNA “Family 7,” as was the Stephen Davidson who married Lucy Neighbours, and the Josiah Davidson who married “Sukey” Hughes. DNA “Family 7″ had come to Bedford Co., VA from PA by the 1770s, and they “spread-out” from there…

So….the above are just some of the dozen or so unrelated Davidson/Davison/Davisson families that were in all of Virginia in the 1700s and 1800s. Without DNA testing, much of the above would not be known with any certainty (if known at all). I cannot imagine anyone who is truly interested in genealogy not taking advantage of DNA testing, where possible. Such testing will certainly not provide “all of the answers”….and it is essentially useless if not combined with excellent “conventional research”….but it has already done a tremendous job at disclosing many errors and “wrong guesses.” ….

For Bill Davidson’s complete comment, see the post on February 20, 2013: “Buckingham Notables: William Diuguid, Jr.”