Welcome to the Aycock Surname Project. This project is primarily for Y-DNA testing to facilitate genetic matching for genealogical research. Each member is grouped according to Y-Haplogroup and genetic distance. This project includes a Big Y-700 project to develop the Y-Haplogroup J2 Acock-Aycock Paternal Genetic Tree. There are two types of trees used for genealogical research. One is a pedigree based on documents and the other is a genetic tree based on Y-DNA. Together they provide an effective tool to go beyond genealogical barriers and reveal your genetic relationship to recent, distant and ancient lineages. A father passes down a near-exact copy of his Y Chromosome to his son including changes that have occurred collectively from all previous generations. These variants are called Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms or SNPs. One SNP (pronounced "snip") can define a specific line of descendants while subsequent generations add new Variants defining new branches, thereby creating a family specific pattern. Your direct paternal line going back thousands of years is defined by these SNPs. Within every man is a complete genetic history of his paternal line on the Y-Chromosome. Early documents of the Colony of Virginia contain the names Acock, Aycock, Adcock and other similar Surnames; however, the lack of historical documents make it difficult to prove relationships among the descendant lineages. Families from Virginia migrated to North Carolina and Georgia and then westward. The ancestral relationships among these diverse family lines is uncertain. Y-DNA testing will reveal your genetic closeness to other families that share the same Haplogroup as you. This project has discovered Y-Haplogroup J2 is predominant among Colonial Virginia / North Carolina Acock-Aycock descendants and Y-Haplogroup I-P37 is predominant among Acock families historically from the Cotswolds region of England. Significantly more Y-DNA testing of Acock-Aycock families is needed for this research. PURPOSE, GOAL Y-DNA testing of male participants representing project surnames, will establish paternal genetic branches, discover ancestral connections, advance genealogical research, and test theories of surname variants and migration. The Y-37 and Y-111 STR test provides a predicted Haplogroup assignment and is used for finding matches. The FamilyTreeDNA Big Y-700 SNP kit, which includes STR Y-111, is most beneficial for meeting project goals. The Big Y-700 is for deep ancestral research and will confirm your genetic branch on the Y-Tree of Mankind and find matches to paternal line distant cousins having the same SNP variations as you.   ENGLAND Haplogroup J2 is rare in England, comprising only about 3.5 percent of the population. HgJ2 is thought to have formed in northern Mesopotamia. J2 men were in the Mediterranean Anatolia and Levant region during the Mesolithic period and in coastal regions including Crete, Greece and southern Italy during the Neolithic period. J2 men dominated seafaring civilizations during the Bronze Period. It is not known when J2 men arrived in Great Britain. Genetic research has indicated that J2 men were in Great Britain during the Roman-Britain era 43CE to 410CE. During this period, many cities and towns were established including Exeter, Gloucester, Leicester, London, and Winchester. A cluster of Haplogroup J2 was found near Hadrian's Wall which was built starting in the year 122CE near the border of Scotland in the Roman Province of Britannia. The DNA samples were most likely of Roman soldiers that were stationed at forts along the wall. Many arrived during and after the time of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. This was an army of Norman, Breton, Flemish and French Soldiers led by Duke William II of Normandy who soon became King after the victory at the Battle of Hastings and became known as “William the Conqueror”. King William ordered the “Great Survey” of most of England to record land and property for tax purposes. The survey was completed in 1086. Surnames soon became more common to facilitate identification for tax records. If you were not of a royal family, single names were primarily used, especially when populations were small. As population increased, and tax records & Parish records were required, surnames became more common to identify people. Names were often changed without regard to using them as inherited surnames. With all these new, changed and altered surnames during the medieval and early modern periods you must take caution on placing too much importance on surnames for determining family origins. There is one place name in England that is named after the Acock family, Acocks Green, a Ward in the District of Yardley, Birmingham, England. To learn more please go to the “Acocks Green History Society” website. Acocks Green is not the origin of the Acocks. However, there are records as early as 1420 indicating their presence in that region.   COLONIAL AMERICA In 1643 Edward Adcocke purchased land in the County of York in the Colony of Virginia. The Adcock name is now seen throughout America. In 1664 Thomas Aycock immigrated to the Colony of Virginia on a tobacco ship owned by planter, Dr. John Cogan. The Colony of Virginia encouraged planters and ship Captains to bring families to Virginia by compensating the planter/landowner or captain 50 acres or more for each person. The surname Aycock, with a Y is associated with the name Acock as seen in the 1600 to 1800 records of Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. The earliest Aycock’s are associated with the personal names Thomas, William, Richard, Robert, and John. With so many men having these common personal names it is often difficult to determine which family line they belong to. During the 1600s and 1700s some Aycock families from Virginia journeyed south and established their homes in North Carolina and Georgia and then some families migrated westward. PARTICIPATION Autosomal DNA, passed down from both parents, is only accurate to about 6 generations, however, Y-DNA, paternal line only, changes very slowly over thousands of generations. Occasional variations in the Y-DNA Chromosome create a family specific pattern of your paternal line and determines your placement on the Y-Tree. The success of this project is directly dependent on participation. This project can be especially helpful to those with little or no genealogical knowledge. Representation from families having genealogical documentation of early ancestors is essential to link the genetic tree to the genealogical tree. The study of paternal deep ancestry through FamilyTreeDNA Big Y-700 SNP testing will establish genetic relationships among families of the same Haplogroup during the Genealogical Time Frame. DEDICATION The Aycock Surname Project is dedicated to researchers such as Jane Everline Aycock, Bill Winston Aycock, Frances Aycock Bednar, Catherine Aycock Foster, Lillie Aycock Sirakos, Charles Brantley Ellis, Charles W. Aycock, Max Edward Aycock, Geraldine Brown Hill, Albert L Aycock, and Robert, Olen & Marion Aycock and to the many people that have contributed and continue to research the Aycock lineage. It is for their work that we must dedicate our efforts, through the field of genetics, to continue their vision of a genealogical legacy for future generations.