Reeves DNA Project Updates - 1q 2020
The first quarter of 2020 has been relatively quiet compared to the previous quarter. At the end of March the project has 351 members, an increase of five during the quarter.
In January we welcomed Sherri and Keith; sadly we also saw one member resign from the project. In February we welcomed three new members; Teresia, Diana and Carolyn. Thus far in March we've seen one new members; welcome Paul..
During the past quarter we've received the results for just one new Y-DNA Donor member as follows
Kit 768176 for PR added to DNA Group 07 We hope this individual or his representative will make contact and allow us to identify them within TRP. Three existing Y-DNA Donors received upgraded results. We've seen no new Family Finder results and two new mt-DNA results for Reeves DNA Project members during the past quarter.What we don't know .. ..
It's relatively easy for us to talk about the exisiting Y-DNA results and the various DNA Groups we've identified plus the many results which are curently unmatched. You'll have noticed we do it fairly frequently! Its far more difficult for us to talk about the test results we don't have. But in mid February, over on the blog "Reeves, Reaves and More Rives" Beverly posted an article detailing some of the early US familes which, so far, aren't included within the scope of the Reeves Y-DNA Project. Please take a moment to read "Y-DNA Needed for These Reeves Familes". If you are male and have a continuous male line of descent from any one of these families, we'd love for you to consider taking a Y-DNA test and joining our Reeves DNA Project. We also need more Y-DNA donors from the British Isles to join our project.Interesting Times
With many of us being encouraged/required to spend time at home, how about some reading (and viewing) material? I'm an avid reader of the blog written by Judy G Russell aka The Legal Genealogist and most Sundays she devotes her post to DNA topics. If you've not read any of her work, I've three recent posts to recommend.On 16 February 2020 she posted an article which I think should be compulsory reading for anybody contemplating taking a Y-DNA test or intending to ask somebody else to be a Y-DNA Donor. Please take a few minutes to read and digest "What DNA can't tell us" at https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2020/02/16/what-dna-cant-tell-us/. Here at The Reeves DNA Project we've seen several individual whose surname is Reeves (or a variant) resign from our Project when they found their Y-DNA had an affinity with another surname. By all means go and join that other surname's project but we really wish they would also stay with us and for the benefit of future generations help document their Reeves story.
Then just a couple of weeks later on 01 March 2020 was a post "All the facts ..." at https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2020/03/01/all-the-facts/ Now again this will only take a few minutes of your time to read, but you really need to then set aside an hour to watch the presentation given by Blaine T. Bettinger at Roots Tech 2020 which it links to.
Her post "Before we buy that kit ... " from 08 December 2019 at https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2019/12/08/before-we-buy-that-kit/ touches on the issues of seeking informed consent, a topic which she returns to fairly regularly.
As serious Family Historians we are all aware that a genealogical DNA test isn't just a bit of fun, but other may be less astute. Debbie Kennett is a UK based genetic genealogist, speaker and author. She recently posted a thought provoking piece to the Hampshire England Genealogy mailing list at https://groups.io/g/Hampshire-England-genealogy/topic/71470700#178 in response to another member's message.
In these interesting time, please be careful and be caring.
If you missed last quarter's summary the DNA Project Update for 4q2019 is available here.