Results
So far 14 male STERRYS have joined the Project. Numbers corresponding to individual STERRY lines are as follows:
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk - 4
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (now linked to Bury St Edmunds tree) - 1
Longhope, Gloucestershire - 4
Southwold, Suffolk - 2
Bermondsey, Surrey - (now linked to the Longhope tree) 1
Southwark, Surrey - 1
Minsterworth, Gloucestershire - 0
Lowestoft, Suffolk - 1
Ipswich, Suffolk - 0
Pakefield, Suffolk - 0
Stonington, Connecticut, USA - 0
Starks, Maine, USA - 0
To date we have an exact DNA match across 37-markers between three documented members of the Longhope line. This provides a potential baseline for comparison to others who share the same genetic pattern and who can then be linked to this line. A member of the previously unlinked Bermondsey, London line has matched exactly with the three established members of the Longhope line enabling the Bermondsey line to be linked to the Longhope line, something that years of documentary research has failed to establish.
The test results for three members of the Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk line match closely and support the documentary evidence. Two member of the Bury St Edmunds line do not match but do match one another. Further research is needed to discover where this genetic 'break' is due to incorrect interpretation of documentary evidence or previously unknown adoptions, illegitimacies or surname variations.
The DNA evidence for those tested for the Bury St Edmunds line also confirms the assumed link between the Melbourne, Australia line and the main Bury St Edmunds tree.
The Southwold, Suffolk tree only has two members tested so far representing the two distinct documented family lines in this tree. They are not related despite both lines originating in Southwold. We need more members to join the Project who are either related to this tree or the geographically close Lowestoft, Suffolk line in order to make any further connections to other STERRY lines in the UK.
One member of the Lowestoft line has now been tested. This member of the Lowestoft line is not related to either of the two Southwold lines.
One member of the Southwark,Surrey Sterry line has now been tested. There is documentary evidence for a possible connection between this line and the Longhope, Gloucestershire and a common ancestor from abt 1515. The DNA results to date do not support this connection.
There are now three distinct haplogroups in the STERRY DNA Study suggesting quite different origins dating back many thousands of years. This provides very early data for eventually linking to surname variants that may have existed before documentary evidence is generally available but within the period when the use of surnames became established, that is from the 11th through to the 15th centuries - at least in Europe.