About us
The goals of the project are two-fold. The primary goal of the project from its inception was to determine, once and for all, if there was a genealogical relationship between our earliest American Paynes. The second goal is to provide researchers with a scientific tool to help them overcome their "brick walls" by grouping our participant matches together into "Lineages." These Lineages form separate and distinct branches on the PAYNE family tree and they are NOT genetically related. However, caution must be used here because while they may not be genetically related, it would still be possible to be genealogically related. For example, we may have genealogical records that suggest a relationship between two ancestors. But when we get the results back, we find that the DNA signature of one of the participants is very distinct from any other PAYNE Lineage. This distinction could serve as a clue since it is so different than other PAYNE DNA results. It could be an indication that an ancestor had been adopted or assumed the PAYNE surname. Therefore, while there might not be a genetic relationship, a genealogical relationship may exist nonetheless. I have often wondered if this might be the case between our Lineages 1 and 2.
One goal that we are still seeking to accomplish with our Project is to locate and test descendants from our earliest PAYNE (or PAINE's as they are more often found) from New England, particularly descendants of William PAYNE (d. 1660) of Boston and Ipswich, Massachusetts. This family may hold a very important key for many of us as my research suggests that we would find them to be genetically related to our Lineage 1 (and/or possibly Lineage 2 participants. Unfortunately, only one such person has ever been found, and they refused to be tested for security concerns. That is very unfortunate and I hope that he and/or his children will reconsider. In the meantime, all we can do is hope another comes forward. After 8 years, it is looking a bit hopeless that we will ever find the genetic link that could confirm conclusively if my genealogical research is on the right track. As a result, all we can do is follow the genealogical clues, that never seem to provide enough proof to satisfy most researchers. The DNA could solve the question.
Other branches of the PAYNE Family Tree of interest to our research are:
Descendants of John PAYNE (1615-1689/90) "the immigrant" of Virginia.
Descendants of the PAYN family of Jersey in the Channel Islands.
Descendants of the PAYNES of Suffolk, England.
Descendants of the PAYNES of London/Yorkshire/Sussex, England.
Descendants of the PAYNES of Huntindonshire, England.
Descendants of the PAYNES of St. Mary's, Maryland
Descendants from the various PAYNE branches in 18th-19th century North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.
How can the project help you and your research? Well, assuming that you are a male with the surname PAYNE (or you seek to have one that you know tested), the project can help you in a variety of ways. Primarily, the results may match with one of the Lineages defined on our results charts. Such a match would immediately inform researchers which Lineage to concentrate their research on, instead of spending a lot of wasted effort researching an unrelated branch of the PAYNE family. If the match is a particularly close one, it would indicate a relatively recent common ancestry. The more distant the match, the further back in time you have to go to find this common ancestry.
For most people, if there is a match it will normally be a close one and there is a very good chance that you can find your common ancestor within a few generations (during a time period when genealogical records are much more abundant and accessible). For those with deeper genealogical questions (such as those who descend from our earliest American PAYNE branches or those from other countries), we expect our matches to be more distant (3 or more markers distant), indicating common ancestry dating back several hundred years. We have several such cases and genealogical records to support it. We are simply waiting for some results to clarify things. The forgoing words of wisdom are from Patrick Payne the original administrator of this project. They are still relevant. I would add that a recent trend seems to be testing SNPs. This is useful for proving your haplotype, or finding what tribe you may have sprang from 20,000 years ago, but not much help in finding relatives in the genealogical time frame. STR marker tests are the only way to find people you are related to and match genetically, the more STR markers tested the better your chances. Wally Smith
One goal that we are still seeking to accomplish with our Project is to locate and test descendants from our earliest PAYNE (or PAINE's as they are more often found) from New England, particularly descendants of William PAYNE (d. 1660) of Boston and Ipswich, Massachusetts. This family may hold a very important key for many of us as my research suggests that we would find them to be genetically related to our Lineage 1 (and/or possibly Lineage 2 participants. Unfortunately, only one such person has ever been found, and they refused to be tested for security concerns. That is very unfortunate and I hope that he and/or his children will reconsider. In the meantime, all we can do is hope another comes forward. After 8 years, it is looking a bit hopeless that we will ever find the genetic link that could confirm conclusively if my genealogical research is on the right track. As a result, all we can do is follow the genealogical clues, that never seem to provide enough proof to satisfy most researchers. The DNA could solve the question.
Other branches of the PAYNE Family Tree of interest to our research are:
Descendants of John PAYNE (1615-1689/90) "the immigrant" of Virginia.
Descendants of the PAYN family of Jersey in the Channel Islands.
Descendants of the PAYNES of Suffolk, England.
Descendants of the PAYNES of London/Yorkshire/Sussex, England.
Descendants of the PAYNES of Huntindonshire, England.
Descendants of the PAYNES of St. Mary's, Maryland
Descendants from the various PAYNE branches in 18th-19th century North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.
How can the project help you and your research? Well, assuming that you are a male with the surname PAYNE (or you seek to have one that you know tested), the project can help you in a variety of ways. Primarily, the results may match with one of the Lineages defined on our results charts. Such a match would immediately inform researchers which Lineage to concentrate their research on, instead of spending a lot of wasted effort researching an unrelated branch of the PAYNE family. If the match is a particularly close one, it would indicate a relatively recent common ancestry. The more distant the match, the further back in time you have to go to find this common ancestry.
For most people, if there is a match it will normally be a close one and there is a very good chance that you can find your common ancestor within a few generations (during a time period when genealogical records are much more abundant and accessible). For those with deeper genealogical questions (such as those who descend from our earliest American PAYNE branches or those from other countries), we expect our matches to be more distant (3 or more markers distant), indicating common ancestry dating back several hundred years. We have several such cases and genealogical records to support it. We are simply waiting for some results to clarify things. The forgoing words of wisdom are from Patrick Payne the original administrator of this project. They are still relevant. I would add that a recent trend seems to be testing SNPs. This is useful for proving your haplotype, or finding what tribe you may have sprang from 20,000 years ago, but not much help in finding relatives in the genealogical time frame. STR marker tests are the only way to find people you are related to and match genetically, the more STR markers tested the better your chances. Wally Smith