Sheffields_of_VA/NC- Background

Background

The ‘Sheffields_of_VA/NC’ Project will be used to serve the families in Virginia with the Sheffield surname. We invite Sheffields of all origins to help build a comprehensive database of DNA results for all reseachers to consult. The only request of this project is that you post your Most Distant Paternal ancestor's name for all to use in their research.



Master Thomas Sheffield arrived in Virginia in 1619 and established Sheffield’s Plantation in what is now Chesterfield County, three miles south of the Falling Creek Iron Works. On Good Friday, 1622, an attack by Indians killed over 450 colonists in the Jamestown settlement including Thomas and his wife Rachel. A two year old son, Samuel, survived and is believed to have been sent back to England. Many more Sheffield men immigrated to Virginia in the 17th and 18th centuries, settling in counties from the James River to the Carolinas. In the 1640s, Sheffields immigrated to the Mayflower colony also. This Project will use Y-DNA to determine any relationships among these early settlers and their relationships to later Sheffield families.