Updated 16 September 2013

European Testers:

We now have four participants from England (UK) in our project. These members are invaluable in helping to trace our Colonial Virginia and North Carolina lines back to their European Roots. 

Kit No. 219733 is a GOODWIN currently living in the UK. His ancestors go back to the late 1700s -early 1800s in Benenden, Kent, England (UK). He is an exact match to Kit No. 223009, also a GOODWIN, from the United States. We are still waiting for pedigree information from both of these kit nos. 

Kit No. H1141 is a GODWIN, living in the UK. His ancestors go back to the 1660s in Portesham, Dorset, England (UK). He has been placed into Group 4 GODWINS which includes one line from Thomas GODWIN I born in England in 1676 and his wife Elizabeth. The family of Thomas GODWIN I settled in Virginia and is represented by Kit no. N26047. Another line descends from Wells Godwin, brother of John Godwin, "The Bridge Builder" of Anson County, North Carolina. Wells was born about 1791 in Anson County, North Carolina. His family removed to South Carolina, Georgia, and southern Alabama. A descendant of the DANIEL family is also represented in this group. Their oldest known ancestor, Theophilus Daniel, was born 1786 in North Carolina and died 1865 in Alabama. It is believed there was an NPE that occurred in his family. An NPE could have resulted from several things including a name change, an illegitimate birth, or an adoption by a family member or a step-parent. We hope that a close examination of pedigrees and more people testing can close the gap on these lines and hopefully tie them all back to a common ancestor in England (UK).

111-MarkerResults:

We also have several 111-marker results posted in the project results worksheet.These data allow us to differentiate between lines or to confirm lines of descent.  

Non-Paternal Events:

Sometimes project members are surprised by their test results, especially when they come back as matching to men of a different surname. This was probably due to a Non-Paternal Event (NPE) that occurred along the way. NPEs could have resulted from several things:

• Name change

• Illegitimate birth

• Adoption by a family member or step-parent

You can usually tell that an NPE occurred whenall of your matches are of a different, but single, surname. Usually an examination of place and time of both families will yield clues as to when and where the NPE might have occurred.

We usually recommend that the project member remain in the Goodwin-Godwin project as well as join the project of the surname they matched to. In this manner, other testers who might be of the same (supposed) Goodwin or Godwin line would know up front that their line was redirected to another surname. Of course we keep their pedigree listed on our pedigree page.