The original purpose of the Phelps yDNA project was to identify the various PHELPS family tree lines using yDNA tests through FTDNA.  Genealogy researchers got frustrated trying to trying to sort through paper trail and encountering heavily repeated names like William, John, James, Thomas, and others.  There were so many of them who had the same names and lived so close to each other, it was really difficult to tell them apart.  So they turned to yDNA testing to help clarify those Phelps lines.  It has proved to be an invaluable tool in distinguishing the Phelps lines apart. During this research, we have discovered numerous errors, omissions and others in the Phelps Family in America, by Phelps and Servin.  It also dispelled a myth that two well-known Phelps lines are related.  Some of the families were lumped together with the wrong family line.  In other cases, two or even three persons were conflated as one person that has greatly confounded the researchers. While this two-volume genealogy book is a valuable guide, we do need to verify the lines with primary records and other sources such as census records, land deeds, and wills.   

Ten years later, we now have a well established yDNA Phelps project. We have identified over 17 Phelps lines in United States and England and counting.  They all have their own unique "fingerprint yDNA markers".  Here are the overall results:

• We have over 17 genetically unrelated Phelps lines, proven through yDNA testing.
• The four original Phelps lines of New England are not genetically related to each other.  They all immigrated to New England in 1600s. 
  
• There is absolutely no biological relationship between the two long-assumed "brothers", William Phelps and George Phelps, in Windsor, Hartford Co., England.  They are two separate Phelps lines.
  
• None of the tested Southern Phelps lines matches the Northern Phelps lines.
• One New England Phelps descendant of William Phelps family, b. 1593, of Crewkerne, England immigrated in the 1800s from Yeovil, England and made Fulton, NY their home before moving west. 
  
• Our William Phelps line has crossed the pond and found a yDNA matching Brit! 
  
• Two Brit Phelps who took the yDNA test did not match each other and remarkably they do not match any of the Phelps lines in United States.
  
• No other Brit Phelps have been found to match any of the Phelps lines in America or Australia, etc....yet! 
  
• We do not have yDNA fingerprint for descendants of William Phelps of Teweksbury at this time. 
  

Although the New England Phelps lines are now well established, there are still many lines within each Phelps line that will need verification.  In addition, we will attempt to add atDNA results in our genealogy research. The results from mtDNA is of limited use at this time, but if you are a direct descendant of a female Phelps in New England, please do let us know and you are certainly welcome to join us here.

Please check out our website yDNA-Tested Phelps Lineages in New England for more info about the New England Phelps lineages. 

In addition, regardless of which Phelps lines, we encourage any living Phelps or Phelps descendants who are in England, Australia, and other possible places to take some of the DNA tests.