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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2003-09 > 1062418693


From: Richard Steadham <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] Discussion of surname DNA projects not universally welcomed by list...
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 08:20:18 -0400
In-Reply-To: <200309010201_MC3-1-4B78-91B@compuserve.com>


On Monday, September 1, 2003, at 02:00 AM, Nan & George Wolf wrote:

> How was your project able to zero in on that one man - knowing that he
> was the common ancestor? Have all 25 markers matched from all his known
> descendants?

Nan,

Refer back to the pedigree chart at:

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tstiddem/Pages/pedigree.html

Notice that Christopher Stedham is the grandfather of Samuel Stidham.
Christopher Stedham conveniently left a will in York County, PA, which
named four sons, two of which are represented in the pedigree chart,
Zacharias and Adam. Participants in our study who descend from
Zacharias Stedham match others of us who descend from our common
ancestor,Timen Stiddem at the top of the chart--and this is the
clincher--from different sons of Timen. All our participants who
descend from Adam Stedham's son Samuel, are not even close to matching
the rest of us. As if to underline the genetic disconnect between Timen
Stiddem's descendants and those of Samuel Stidham, they're from
completely different haplogroups. E3b (FTDNA confirmed) for Timen's
descendants, R1b for Samuel's (not confirmed, but has the classic R1b
markers).

As far as Timen's descendants matching 25/25, only two in our study
thus far do. Most of the others are 24/25. An interesting observation
I've found is that my results have me at 23/25 compared with other
participants descending from Timen's sons Lucas and Adam, yet I'm just
22/25 compared with another particpant in the Benedictus line in which
we both share a common ancestor named Benjamin Stedham III (see
pedigree chart again), albeit, two of those markers are fast movers.
That's 21 transmission events between me and these other two making us
23/25, yet only 13 transmission events between me "Benedictus 2", and
the other participant in my line, "Benedictus 1". Because the
Stidham/Stedham/Steadham name is so rare, and our haplogroup E3b is
uncommon in Europe where we came from (Sweden), a result of 22/25 isn't
unheard of according to Bennett and FTDNA.

Richard Steadham
Stidham DNA Study Group Administrator
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~tstiddem/Pages/results.html

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