About us
The Bracey Y-DNA Project was founded in August 2012. Project news for years other than the current year is archived as PDF documents that you can open using the appropriate year links in the Bracey Y-DNA Project News Archive. Please note that to open any links from within these archived PDF's you will need to copy and paste the URL into your browser.
*** For news of the latest developments please scroll to the bottom of this page***
The following paper by King & Jobling gives a useful overview of Y-DNA analysis, haplotypes and their utility in English family name studies http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/KingJobling09.TiG.SurnamesReview.pdf
January 2015
11th January, Our members have several upgrade tests in progress this month. Our member, Brace, Kit No 81974 is testing SNP CTS6369, and another Brace name holder, Kit No N115212, has ordered a complete sequence test for his mitochondrial DNA. Within our J haplogroup membership Kit No 356598, Brassey, is upgrading from 12 to 67 STR and Kit No 224504, Bracy, is upgrading 37 to 67STR. In addition this member has ordered a Geno 2.0 test, and this will provide the first SNP results we have within the J haplogroup.
The Kit No 356598, Brassey upgrade was paid for by donations to our Bracey Project General Fund for J2 haplogroup research.
Our General Fund has also had a donation from the Brace family that will allow us to continue funding our 12 STR Free Test Offer. Like their previous support, given in March 2014, this generous gift has been made in memory of Howard Henry Brace of Rock County, Wisconsin. Member General Fund donations in support of our research are vital if our 12 STR Free Test Offer is to continue. Donations can be made here https://www.familytreedna.com/group-general-fund-contribution.aspx using credit card or PayPal. In the past year your donations have funded five 12 STR tests. As a result of one of these tests our project has confirmed a genetic connection between seventeenth century Bressie colonists of Virginia, and the Brassey family of Cheshire, England. A report on this exciting work can be found on our links page in the Papers & Research Reports category.
27th January, Kit No 367119, a Canadian Bracey member with earliest known direct male ancestry in South Gloucestershire has the result for his 12STR test. This gives him a predicted E-L117 haplogroup and his 12 STR haplotype is a close match with our member Kit No 274466 who also has documented direct male ancestry in Almondsbury, South Gloucestershire. These two results seem to support the hypothesis that the uncommon E-L117 (aka E-V13; E1b1b1) is the signature haplogroup for the South Gloucestershire Bracey family who are descended from Thomas Bracey (1550-1632) of Frampton Cotterell.
Our "alias Bracey" member Kit No 236748 has ordered a Family Finder upgrade.
February 2015
14th February, We have a new English Bracey member, Kit No 402221, who has a 12 STR test ordered. His documented direct male ancestry is from Thomas Bracey of Frampton Cotterell, Gloucestershire, who was born circa 1550. He is our fourth member with links to the Gloucestershire Bracey family.
Also our non-Bracey member, Kit No. 242248 has ordered an A417 SNP test. This SNP was discovered in 2014 as a result of several BigY results and it forms the only clade within I-L233. Of the twenty four men who have so far tested, 12% are derived (positive) for this mutation.
March 2015
19th March, You will have noticed that the appearance of our project web pages has changed recently as a result ofthe migration to the new FTDNA myGroups activity feed. This is a “social media” interface in which members can post genealogy research, comments, questions, photos and chat. Members can access our project myGroups by logging into their My FTDNA page and clicking on the orange myGroups Beta banner near the top of the page. Each day there is a new discount voucher code posted giving $10 or $20 discounts on any order over $40. These codes are not “time limited” but each code can only be used once. Several vouchers have already provided members with useful savings on upgrades.
The system also includes a project Links page with categories for “Papers & Research Reports”, “Bracey Y-DNA Project NewsArchive”, “Project Documents” and “Bracey Related Websites”.
The great potential of myGroups for our project is that it provides you with an online forum in which you can interact with other members and share research material. Please take a look and experiment with using this new space.
At present our project has the largest number of concurrent tests under analysis at the lab since the project was founded in 2012. Two members (81974 & 242248) are awaiting SNP test results, four (282009, 309570, 356598 & 366019) have new or upgrade STR tests in progress and Kit No 367119 is expecting FamilyFinder output.
An eighth member, Kit No 402221, has a new DNA sample in transit to Houston for STR analysis.
April 201524th April, We have a new non-Bracey member, Kit No 411392 who has ordered a FamilyFinder test.
Our member, Kit No 282009, with documented ancestry in South Gloucestershire, has a predicted I-L233 haplogroup from his 12STR test. He is the fourth member of our project with earliest known ancestry in this English county and the second with this haplogroup. The other two Bracey members from Gloucestershire are haplogroup E-V13. This latest result confirms that the I-L233 haplogroup originates from a Non-Paternity Event (NPE) in the legitimate E-V13 lineage that happened circa 1768.
May 2015
27th May, We have a 37STR test result, Bracey, Kit No 396530 who has a predicted J-M172 haplogroup and whose direct ancestry is linked to the Virginia colonists.
June 2015
16th June, New 111STR test results for our Bressie member, Kit No 309570. He has a J-M172 haplogroup and appears closely related to the Cheshire Brassey family.
We also have a new non-Bracey member, Kit No 385026.
August 2015
13th August, It is three years today since the start of the Bracey Y-DNA Project. In that time, thanks to the participation of our membership, our project has made several significant discoveries that demonstrate the potential of genetic genealogy:
1) We have established that male holders of Bracey name variant surnames in North America and Europe belong to at least five different Y-DNA haplogroups; Haplogroups E, G, I, J and R. At present the haplogroup most frequently associated with our surname is haplogroup J with over 40% of those men who have tested belonging to that group. In the European population the J haplogroup is fairly evenly distributed at a frequency of 10-15%. In the USA the J-M172 haplogroup is present in about 1.5% of men.
2) In England, where the Bracey surname has highest frequency in South Gloucestershire, Cheshire and Norfolk, we have shown that these different regional populations are associated with different Y-DNA haplogroups. Men with our family name who have descent in Cheshire belong to the J haplogroup, while Bracey men with descent in South Gloucestershire belong to the E haplogroup.
3) We have also confirmed a genetic connection between men in the USA who are documented descendants of the seventeenth century Bressie colonists of Virginia and the Brassey family of Cheshire, England. Descendants of both these branches share closely related J-M172 haplotypes at 67STR markers.
31st August, We have recently had STR results for two non-Bracey members, Kit Numbers 385026 and 416794. Their respective predicted haplogroups are, R-M269 and I-M253.
Last updated, Monday, 31st August 2015.