The BRADFORD Project - Family Project Website

The BRADFORD Project

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Group Administrator: Adam Bradford adam.bradford@gmail.com
Group Co-Administrator: Gary Bradford gbradford@tntech.edu

Project Surnames:

Bradfoot	Bradford	Braford	Braidfoot
Braidfute	Braidwood	Brailsford	Brawford
Broadfoot

Project Background:

All DNA results are currently being kept here:

http://www.delmarvabradfords.com/dna/results.php

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Project Background, Goals, Results and News are copyright of the specific Surname Project

Project Goals:

Broadly, the goal of the Bradford DNA Project is to build up a body of genetic evidence that may be used by Bradford genealogists to further their research. A more immediate goal is to use DNA evidence to distinguish different Bradford lineages from each other.

We are seeking representatives from every distinct Bradford lineage and representatives of variant surnames who may share a common descent. We still need representatives of the following early American Bradford ancestors:

- Nathaniel Bradford (d.1690, Accomack Co., VA)
- William Bradford, printer of Philadelphia and NY (1658-1752)
- Robert or William Bradford of Beverly, Mass. 1600s/1700s
- James Bradford (d.1789, Washington Co, PA) (father of David Bradford of the Whiskey Rebellion)
- Samuel Brawford of Orange County, VA
- Samuel Bradford of New Castle Co., DE
- Joseph Bradford (son of Governor William of Plymouth)

Any Bradford descendants who wish to have other names added to this list, please contact the administrator.

Project Results:

NOTE: For the following, please reference the DNA results and lineage information as displayed at the following website: http://www.delmarvabradfords.com/dna/results.php. We have results for three individuals who have not tested with FTDNA and their results are included on that site.

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Group 1
This group contains several confirmed descendants of Richard Bradford of Charles City County, VA, who emigrated to America probably in the 1650s. There is evidence to suggest that participant 18264 is likely a descendant of Nathaniel Bradford of Accomack Co., VA, who was a contemporary of Richard. One of the main goals of the DNA Project with respect to this group would be to see if we can genetically distinguish the Nathaniel descendants from the Richard descendants.

There are a few markers which hold the potential for distinguishing subgroups within Group 1.

DYS640 - Most of Group 1 has the value 14 at this marker. However, the probable Nathaniel descendant has the value 13, as does participant 88624, a descendant of Spencer Bradford (b.1826, TN). It had always been presumed, even prior to testing, that Spencer was a descendant of Richard of Charles City. Clearly, we don't have enough genealogical information to tell whether this value of 13 on DYS640 may prove to be peculiar to the descendants of Nathaniel. We are still seeking a confirmed descendant of Nathaniel for testing.

DYS389ii - On this marker, participants 20876 and 58679 have the value 19, whereas the other Group 1 participants have the values 17 or 18. Participant 58679 is a confirmed descendant of Richard's son John Bradford of Brunswick. We are working on exploring a connection (tentative at the moment) between participant 20876's earliest confirmed ancestor Bartholomew Bradford and John of Brunswick's grandson Nathaniel.

Group 1 is predicted to be haplogroup I1b2a (formerly I1c)

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Groups 2a and 2b
These groups respectively contain the descendants of Thomas Bradford (b.c.1750) and George Bradford (1753-1812) of Orange County, NC. Previously, it was concluded that Thomas and George shared a common Bradford descent based on their 12 marker match. However, we are now aware that their 12 marker haplotype is quite common and that a match is not strong enough for us to comfortably state that they share a common descent. However, given the strong tradition of common descent between the two men, the participants are satisfied for the moment with these results.

The haplogroup of Groups 2a and 2b is predicted to be R1b1c.

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Group 3
The earliest known ancestor of this group is Governor William Bradford of Plymouth. Participant 36488 is working on documenting his line of descent from Governor William, but circumstantial evidence indicates that his ancestor Henry S. Bradford is likely a grandson of Henry Swift Bradford, who was a descendant of the Governor. Assuming 36488's descent from Henry Swift Bradford can be confirmed, then the MRCA of this group right now is Governor William Bradford's son William rather than Governor William himself. We are seeking a descendant of Governor William's son Joseph in an effort to determine Gov. Bradford's haplotype.

This group has been predicted to be haplogroup I1a. Their haplotype indicates that they are likely a part of the I1a AS clade.

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Group 4 - Bradford/Braidwood
This group contains descendants of Samuel Bradford of Worcester Co., MD (d.1812), David Bradford (d.1779, Cabarrus Co., NC), and Giles Bradford of Gilmer Co, GA and Putnam Co, TN (d.1898). Previous to the DNA match bewteen their descendants, there was no known link between Samuel, David, and Giles. Associated with these Bradfords are two men with the surname Braidwood. Given the similarities between the names, the 67 marker results do not rule out a common descent between the Braidwoods and the Group 4 Bradfords within a genealogical time frame.

Based on SNP results for 20874 obtained from Ethnoancestry, this group is haplogroup R1b1c9. STR results indicate they probably also belong to the so-called Frisian subclade of R1b1c9.

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The remainder of the participants in the project either have no close genetic matches with any other participants or do not have enough markers tested for us to be able to reliably determine the likelihood of their common descent.

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A Special Case: John Bradford of Fauquier Co., VA
We currently have three participants (53454, 24322, and 89222) who claim lines of descent from John Bradford of Fauquier Co., VA (1695-1775). None of them have a close match with any others in the project, including with each other. Until we are able to double check all the lineages or until we get at least one other participant who matches one of these three, we will be unable to determine if any of the results may reliably point towards a descent from John of Fauquier.

DNA Test Results (mtDNA) for Project Members