About us
Eligibility
- The Family of John P. Waters project is open to all women and men who have a direct link, or suspected link, to John P. Waters & Elisabeth Cullum/Colom/Cullums on any line of descent.
- All women and men who have a direct link, or suspected link, to Rachel Waters/Walters wife of Joel Sturgill.
YDNA Testing Recommendations
Men who are, or suspect they may be, direct paternal descendant should begin with YDNA testing. We recommend a YDNA test of at least 37 markers, although we do prefer the Y-111or big-Y tests. If you have already tested with another company, you may be able to transfer and supplement your results at a low cost.
If you choose a smaller test, we suggest that you do additional YDNA testing to determine your haplogroup, or deep paternal ancestral group.
ATDNA (Autosomal) Testing Recommendations
Women, and men whose Waters ancestors are on other than direct paternal lines, should begin with an autosomal DNA test, which evaluates all direct ancestral branches. (This is also valuable for men who are direct Waters paternal descendants.) atDNA testing is available through FamilyTree DNA's FamilyFinder test. Individuals who tested with other companies maybe able to transfer their results to Family Finder for a fee.
Due to their nature, atDNA tests are not comparable to mtDNA or yDNA tests and cannot be seen on the results page. If you have an atDNA test here or on another site, we ask that you upload the results to GEDmatch so that we can compare results with other test takers.
**If you upload a test to GEDmatch, please send the admins an email with your kit number or post it in the activity feed.
Resources
We have a Facebook group, here.
Additional resources are available to project members through the group "Activity Feed".
Project Findings
The Results' page summarizes the findings of the project to date. Detailed DNA test results are available to project members on this website.
Project Donations
All donations made to the group will be used at the discretion of the group admins to help purchase tests or test upgrades for group members only.
Privacy Policy
The General Data Protection Regulation affords certain privacy protections to residents of the European Union and United Kingdom. In compliance with this regulation, and following the recommendation of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG), the following policies are in effect for the Family of John P. Waters project. They complement, but do not replace, privacy policies promulgated by DNA testing companies or Third-party sites. For Family Tree DNA's privacy policies and informed consent for group projects, see:
The administrators of the Family of John P. Waters DNA Project give priority to protecting your privacy and to the confidentiality of your personal data. In particular, we will not publish your name, email address or other contact details, or share this information with other project members, or other persons or organizations without your specific written permission.
The only personal data that we hold is that relevant to meeting the published goals of our Project, and which has been made available to us through DNA testing companies, by you directly to us through email or post, or through Third-party sites to which you have voluntarily submitted your personal information. In accordance with Family Tree DNA's informed consent for group projects, we display certain information on our public website, specifically your kit number, surname, most distant known ancestor, and YDNA results. You may specifically opt out of such displays, although we do not recommend it as it greatly limits our ability to assist your research. We may also from time to time compile your information into specialized formats for the purpose of analysing it to fulfil the goals of the Project. These analytical records are not made public, and all reports published by the project exclude the identifying information of Project members.
We hold this data indefinitely or until you request its deletion. You may see the current data on the Project website, https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/familyof-john-p-waters/about/background, or request such information from the Project administrators. We will be pleased to correct any errors in your personal data that you bring to our attention.
At your request, at any time, we will promptly remove your data from our specialized Project files. To request modification or deletion of data derived from testing companies, you must contact them directly, as we have no control over the information held in their databases.
In our administration of this project we endeavour to comply with the most recent guidelines issued by ISOGG (https://isogg.org/wiki/ISOGG_Project_Administrator_Guidelines), and by Family Tree DNA (https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/project-administration/gap-guidelines-ftdna-projects/) and with the Genetic Genealogy Standards(http://www.geneticgenealogystandards.com).
We will endeavour to respond promptly to any questions or concerns you may have about the handling of your data in this project. However, you should be aware that, because the data are ultimately derived from information held by testing companies, some of your queries may be better directed to them.
Men who are, or suspect they may be, direct paternal descendant should begin with YDNA testing. We recommend a YDNA test of at least 37 markers, although we do prefer the Y-111or big-Y tests. If you have already tested with another company, you may be able to transfer and supplement your results at a low cost.
If you choose a smaller test, we suggest that you do additional YDNA testing to determine your haplogroup, or deep paternal ancestral group.
ATDNA (Autosomal) Testing Recommendations
Women, and men whose Waters ancestors are on other than direct paternal lines, should begin with an autosomal DNA test, which evaluates all direct ancestral branches. (This is also valuable for men who are direct Waters paternal descendants.) atDNA testing is available through FamilyTree DNA's FamilyFinder test. Individuals who tested with other companies maybe able to transfer their results to Family Finder for a fee.
Due to their nature, atDNA tests are not comparable to mtDNA or yDNA tests and cannot be seen on the results page. If you have an atDNA test here or on another site, we ask that you upload the results to GEDmatch so that we can compare results with other test takers.
**If you upload a test to GEDmatch, please send the admins an email with your kit number or post it in the activity feed.
Resources
We have a Facebook group, here.
Additional resources are available to project members through the group "Activity Feed".
- Links to public trees (**Note: Both of these trees are communal trees and can be, and often are changed, at the whim of anyone who comes along. While we do try our best to keep them up to date and correct, it is impossible to consistently maintain them.):
- https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Waters-7647 **Due to the harassing behaviour of moderators on WikiTree, we are no longer associated with them, nor recommend the use of their site to others. The pages we have created still exist; however, we no longer have control of them. (If you are interested in taking them over please feel free to do so, all we ask is that if you keep our research and write-ups that you credit us. We can be contacted through private email, FTDNA, and Facebook if needed. Thank you understanding and consideration.)
- https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L7GL-BNR
- Additional resources:
Project Findings
The Results' page summarizes the findings of the project to date. Detailed DNA test results are available to project members on this website.
Project Donations
All donations made to the group will be used at the discretion of the group admins to help purchase tests or test upgrades for group members only.
Privacy Policy
The General Data Protection Regulation affords certain privacy protections to residents of the European Union and United Kingdom. In compliance with this regulation, and following the recommendation of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG), the following policies are in effect for the Family of John P. Waters project. They complement, but do not replace, privacy policies promulgated by DNA testing companies or Third-party sites. For Family Tree DNA's privacy policies and informed consent for group projects, see:
- https://www.familytreedna.com/legal/terms-of-service
- https://www.familytreedna.com/legal/terms/group-project-participation
The administrators of the Family of John P. Waters DNA Project give priority to protecting your privacy and to the confidentiality of your personal data. In particular, we will not publish your name, email address or other contact details, or share this information with other project members, or other persons or organizations without your specific written permission.
The only personal data that we hold is that relevant to meeting the published goals of our Project, and which has been made available to us through DNA testing companies, by you directly to us through email or post, or through Third-party sites to which you have voluntarily submitted your personal information. In accordance with Family Tree DNA's informed consent for group projects, we display certain information on our public website, specifically your kit number, surname, most distant known ancestor, and YDNA results. You may specifically opt out of such displays, although we do not recommend it as it greatly limits our ability to assist your research. We may also from time to time compile your information into specialized formats for the purpose of analysing it to fulfil the goals of the Project. These analytical records are not made public, and all reports published by the project exclude the identifying information of Project members.
We hold this data indefinitely or until you request its deletion. You may see the current data on the Project website, https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/familyof-john-p-waters/about/background, or request such information from the Project administrators. We will be pleased to correct any errors in your personal data that you bring to our attention.
At your request, at any time, we will promptly remove your data from our specialized Project files. To request modification or deletion of data derived from testing companies, you must contact them directly, as we have no control over the information held in their databases.
In our administration of this project we endeavour to comply with the most recent guidelines issued by ISOGG (https://isogg.org/wiki/ISOGG_Project_Administrator_Guidelines), and by Family Tree DNA (https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/project-administration/gap-guidelines-ftdna-projects/) and with the Genetic Genealogy Standards(http://www.geneticgenealogystandards.com).
We will endeavour to respond promptly to any questions or concerns you may have about the handling of your data in this project. However, you should be aware that, because the data are ultimately derived from information held by testing companies, some of your queries may be better directed to them.