Happy New Year
Although December was untypically quiet, 2023 as a whole has been another busy year at The Reeves Project (TRP). We've seen our membership grow with 36 accounts being activated during 2023 and we end the year with 539 activated accounts.We have collectively added 975 new pages to TRP during 2023. Of those new pages, 360 have been 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 remains a little disappointing is that just less than one fifth 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. If you need help, reach out to your mentor team via its talk page. (See First Steps - Part 3 for a reminder of how to use our Talk pages ...)
Wiki Stats - End December 2023
The total number of pages in the Wiki (as at 31 December 2023) now stands at 13830 (previously 13823, 13724, 13642), a very modest increase of just 7 pages during the month. Of the total, 2807 pages (was 2804, 2760, 2744) begin with a number and are most probably a date related gleaning. We currently have 6125 wiki pages categorised as "People", of which 5598 begin with the letter "R".Community members should log in to see more.
TRP Users
During December we received two new enquiries about membership of TRP, including one on New Year's Eve. We ended the month with 554 user accounts registered in TRP, an increase of two during the month. . We had one user successfully activated their account during December and we welcome Steve to TRP's community of members. Steve has already created an AboutMe page by following the guidance in First Steps - Part 2. Thank you.If 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 First Steps here. Those same First Steps are also a great refresher for anybody returning to The Reeves Project after a period away.
Reeves DNA Project Quarterly Update
This quarter again started off very busily and then slowly quietened down....We had nine new members joining the Reeves DNA Project at FtDNA during the fourth quarter of 2023 and the total current membership is now 448 (as of 30 December 2023).
During October we welcomed Jordan, Janet, Thomas and Clinton (whose kit is managed by Gerald). In November we were joined by David, Jack & Shirley with Ryan and Kenneth joining us in December.
Through the past quarter three of our nine new members had Y-DNA test results to share with the Project.
Kit 965164 for Jack McGehee added to DNA Group XX
Kit 1001816 for Clinton Reeves added to DNA Group 08
Kit IN131715 for David Ryves added to DNA Group 08 We are grateful to Jack, Gerald (on behalf of Clinton) and David who have all kindly completed our DNA Donor Permission e-mail.1
We would encourage all Membership Criteria & DNA Group XX
Unlike some one name DNA studies, the Reeves DNA Project is happy to welcome all those with an interest in the Reeves surname (and its variants), regardless of their gender or their surname. For those who have taken a Y-DNA test, if your results match one of our pre-existing Groups, we will automatically link your kit with that group. All other Y-DNA test results remain in the ungrouped pool.However, keeping the ungrouped pool free of Y-DNA results we know should never expect a Reeves Y-DNA match makes life much easier for both the admins and those project members hoping to find a Reeves Y-DNA match. If your connection to the R*v*(s) surname is from a female ancestor and you have taken a Y-DNA test, please take a minute to read DNA Group XX's home page within TRP.
During the past quarter we've seen no notifications for an existing Y-DNA kit being upgraded. Seven of the project's new members had taken a Family Finder (autosomal, at-DNA) test and one had taken a mitochondrial (mtDNA) test. There have been no new results from a new Family Finder Donor and one from a new mt-DNA donor.
Year End Summary - 2023
Across the whole of 2023 we welcomed 32 new members to the Reeves DNA Project and with no members resigning, the year end total is 448 members..At the end of 2023, the project has 274 members who have taken some level of Y-DNA test. Of these, 240 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. It is 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 Y-DNA cousins to identify your shared ancestors.
During the year we added one new DNA Group, Group 23 which was first reported in mid August 2023.
A New Years Resolution for 2024
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 re-validate 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 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 over three thousand new pages, of which over 1100 begin with the letter "R" and are likley to be about a R*v*(s) individual, 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 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 re-validate 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 his 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 3q2023 is available here.