Happy New Year
2021 has seen The Reeves Project (TRP) continue to grow and fortunately the year has passed without any major technical issues, although we did have some minor hiccups during the first half of October.On a positive note, during the year we have collectively added 936 new pages. Of those new pages 436 have a page name starting with the letter "R" and probably represent a new R*v*(s) ancestor being added. And many hundreds of existing person pages will have been updated with new information during the past year. What's a little disappointing is that less than one quarter of our community members have logged into TRP during the past year and only a small proportion of those have been actively contributing. Is your branch of your R*v*(s) tree, including all those 3g Aunts and Uncles, fully documented at TRP? Probably not and we'd welcome your contributions during 2022. If you need help, reach out to your mentor team via its talk page.
Wiki Stats - End December 2021
The total number of pages in the Wiki (as at 1 January 2022) now stands at 11605 (previously 11505, 11339, 11185), an increase of 100 pages during the month. Of the total, 2313 pages (was 2288, 2219, 2189) begin with a number and are most probably a date related gleaning. We currently have 5097 wiki pages categorised as "People", of which 4585 begin with the letter "R".Community members should log in to see more.
Those of you who regularly read this section of the monthly news will know I like statistics. For the first time since the very earliest days of TRP, the number of pages beginning with the letter "R" and therefore most likely to be a Person Page for one of our R*v*(s) ancestors now represents 40.0% of the total number of pages, 4643 of 10605, in TRP. You might think that's low for a wiki dedicated to a one name study of the R*v*(s) surname. I prefer to look at it from a different perspective. Those pages we have beginning with a number, the date related gleanings, number 2313 or 19.9% of the total. So for every two R pages (most likely about a person), TRP has, at least, one gleaning page linking our ancestors to historical events. So what about the other 40%? Well there are the geographic places pages, these monthly news pages, DNA Project Group pages, the DNA Project news and quarterly summary pages and a whole host more which bring things together and provide a context for everything.
TRP Users
We endedIf you are having issues activating your account or have simply lost interest, please do let us know. Please contact New User Admin by sending an email to TRP123 (at) TheReevesProject (dot) org if you're stuck and need help or have subsequently decided you don't want to join our community. If you are not yet a member and would like to contribute to our community, please see our About Us page to find out a little more about TRP and then please complete our Join Us form to start the membership enrolment process.
Whether you joined TRP recently or a while ago, if you have yet to do so, please set a meaningful name for yourself as described in First Steps - Part 1. It isn't difficult and only takes a couple of minutes to do. If it helps, think of it as a (small) name label badge; so your first name plus the surname by which you are presently known (or at least the surname initial) would generally be a good choice. You'll find links to the remainder of the our six part First Steps as part of the FAQ - First Steps.
Reeves DNA Project Update
Happy New Year.
Looking back over the last quarter of 2021, we added eight new members and the total project membership of the Reeves DNA Project at FtDNA is now 398.In October we added four new kits and welcome Kenneth, Adam, Sid and Rachel to the Reeves DNA Project. Kenneth's results strongly match those of Samuel R Reeves (at 65/67 markers), who had been in the ungrouped pool since 2018 and Beverly created a new DNA Group 22 as announced on 09 October 2021. November was slower, with just one new members joining us; welcome to Dale. And so to December, where we've so far added three new members; welcome to Michael, Carole (who manages her late father Robert's results) and Thomas.
We also saw one resignation from the project during November and another during December. Even if you have decided that you no longer want to actively pursue your Reeves roots, we do ask that you consider remaining a member of the Reeves DNA Project at FtDNA. The greater the pool of results we have to match against, the stronger the conclusions we can reach about those ancestors we share and those that we don't.
During the past quarter we've received the results for six new Y-DNA members.
Kit 211417 for Robert C Eastridge added to DNA Group XX
Kit 678718 for SG presently ungrouped
Kit 965055 for DR added to DNA Group 20
Kit 965144 for TR added to DNA Group 20
Kit 965912 for AR added to DNA Group 06a
Kit IN107116 for Kenneth N Reeves added to new DNA Group 22We are grateful to Kenneth for sending his Donor Permission email allowing us to name him and also to Carole who provided Proxy Permission on behalf of her late father Robert and who also confirmed that his Reeves lineage was on his maternal side, so allowing us to assign his results to DNA Group XX. We would encourage the other new Y-DNA donors or their representatives to make contact and allow us to identify them within TRP.As last quarter, the results for one of our new members is sitting in the ungrouped pool and again based on the information they provided when they joined the Reeves DNA Project, we strongly suspect they are a member of our DNA Group XX. Whilst we will automatically move Y-DNA matched results to the appropriate Project Group, we do not move unmatched results to DNA Group XX without explicit confirmation from the donor or their proxy. If we can keep the ungrouped pool free of results we know should never expect a Reeves Y-DNA match then it makes life much easier for both the admins and those project members hoping to find a Reeves Y-DNA match. Please take a minute to read DNA Group XX's home page within TRP for information on how to provide consent. All it takes is a simple proforma e-mail as described on the Home page.
During the past quarter we've seen no notifications for new Family Finder results (from a new at-DNA Donor) and no notification of the results from a new mt-DNA donor.
Year End Summary
Across the whole of 2021 we welcomed 33 new members to the Reeves DNA Project and have seen four members depart, bringing the year end total to 398 members..At the end of 2021, the project has 244 members who have taken some level of Y-DNA test, an increase of 17 over the past year. Of these, 210 are tests of a Y-37 or higher resolution. The Y-37 test is now considered the entry level Y-DNA test within this project to allow matching to be undertaken with reasonable certainty. If you currently only have results for a Y-12 or Y-25 test, we suggest you consider upgrading to at least the Y-37 level. Its always worth checking to see if upgrades are included in the various FtDNA sales though the year. Note however, upgrades beyond Y-111 tend not to represent value for money within our project, unless you are actively working closely with other cousins.
During the year we added one new DNA Group, Group 22 which was first reported in early October.
A New Years Resolution for 2022
Do you have a Family Tree publicly posted? When did you last review it? If your tree is more than two years old, then please do make it a New Years Resolution to revalidate it.Why? Well, as you’ll have seen above, our DNA Project has continued to grow and evolve. Over the past couple of years we’ve welcomed in excess of fifty new members, created two new Y DNA Groups and connected various new twigs and branches to the many R*v*(s) trees in the Reeves Y-DNA Project. During the same two year period, over at The Reeves Project (TRP) where we share our primary research, we’ve added just under one thousand new pages and updated countless more. Our collective understanding of various R*v*(s) trees has grown.
Unfortunately, the web has much misinformation concerning our R*v*(s) ancestors. We are fortunate that today the internet makes many primary sources a simple click away. But that hasn’t always been the case. Many of us will remember making long journeys to visit dusty archives to turn the pages of fragile old record books and in later years to wind through the images on microfilm readers. Some Family History books, which at the time seemed to be well researched, are now known to contain errors. Did you use one of those books to extend your tree back in time? Or did you find “hints” on the web which took you back several generations? Did you record the sources underpinning those hints? Was it one of those old books or some other tree, with unclear or unspecified sources?
Please take a little time this January to work backwards through your R*v*(s) line and revalidate the child/parent links. Does TRP have a page for one (or more) of your recent R*v*(s) ancestors? If so, does the individual we have as their father match your tree? Can you find a Person Page for your Earliest Reeves Ancestor in TRP and can you then step forwards through the generations to your R*v*(s) grandparent?
Whilst we would never be so foolish as to claim TRP is flawless, those of us who are regular contributors take great care to link the research we share to verifiable sources. When we do realise we’ve made a mistake, we don’t simply erase it; we retain the erroneous information, strike it through and add the corrected information. This makes it easier for all to see how our thinking has evolved over time.
And if you can’t find some (or all) of your R*v*(s) ancestors at TRP, then please seriously consider joining us there and contribute pages for your missing R*v*(s) ancestors.
If you missed last quarter's summary the DNA Project Update for 3q2021 is available here.