The goals of the Maple Surname DNA Project include:

1) Confirming the common ancestry of MAPLE surnamed men now living in the United States:

        Most U.S. MAPLEs are believed to be descendants of a Benjamin Maple who was present in West Jersey by 1692. This can be confirmed by Y-DNA testing. Ideally, we would like to test descendants of each of Benjamin's grandchildren.

2) Looking for common ancestry between MAPLEs living in the United States and MAPLEs living in the United Kingdom: 

        Benjamin Maple first appeared in a part of West Jersey that was settled by immigrants from Yorkshire, England. We hope that Y-DNA testing can confirm common paternal ancestry among MAPLEs of the United States and the United Kingdom.

3) Looking for possible relationships between the Maple surname and other surnames such as Mable, Mabley, and Mabile:

        This may shed light on the origins of the Maple surname in the British Isles.

4) Establishing haplogroups for MAPLEs in the human Y-DNA haplotree:

        Advanced sequencing of Y-DNA is creating a family tree for all of humanity. We hope to find the position(s) of the MAPLEs in this Y-DNA haplotree. Doing so could eventually lead to an understanding of how the MAPLE paternal line(s) migrated through Europe into the British Isles.

Please feel free to contact the group administrator (brmaple@att.net) for advice on which Y-DNA test to order.