Whitlow DNA Project- Background

Background

The names Whitlow, Whitlaw, and Whitloe are Soundex Code matches. Frequencies of occurrence of these surnames in the available US Censuses are shown in the table below.

1790 289
1800 335
1810 569
1820 878
1830 1,356
1840 1,853
1850 14,286
1860 18,548
1870 26,117
1880 35,703
1900 57,146
1910 67,876
1920 77,394
1930 81,364

The 2000 US Census summary lists Whitlow as having 7,886 entries, which apparently includes spelling variants, such as Whitlaw and Whitloe, based on Soundex data. The Administrators know that their Whitlow family “started” in Virginia, went to North Carolina and settled in Mississippi by 1840. Other family members descended from the Mississippi families and moved to Texas and other states.

A Whitlaw family remained in the Carolinas, and some descendants relocated to Georgia. Our primary hope is to determine the relationship of these two family groups. As more participants enroll in this project, we will modify our goals as needed.

Whatever your level of traditional genealogical experience, DNA has become a new and powerful tool to help discover unknown relationships. The Group Administrators are excited and honored to be a part of this new field of discovery.

The project seeks male Whitlows/Whitlaws/Whitloes for Y-DNA (Y-STR) testing. Females who would like to check their direct paternal line should identify a male with this project surname and ask them to order the Y-DNA test. If you are interested in joining this Y-DNA group, please click on "REQUEST TO JOIN THIS GROUP" in the upper left corner of this page. Females can also order an mtDNA test for themselves and participate in an mtDNA project.