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THE GIBBS SURNAME DNA PROJECT
Project Updates
News about the project (from most recent to oldest)

17 October 2007

We are seeing significant participation from Gibbs lines originating in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There are now five participants whose results match, forming a cluster of haplotypes that can each be traced to one of two Gibbs ancestors who were among the founders of the colony. These two are believed to have been brothers (or at least first cousins) who emigrated from England to the colony separately in the early 1630s. The ancestry of these two men is fairly well known from conventional genealogical research, and their origins are in England.Test results show this clade to belong in the R1b1 haplogroup. One of our participants from this clade (who chooses to remain anonymous for now) is working on an article for publication in the New England Historic & Genealogical Society's "New England Ancestor" magazine. Until it is published we can't reveal too much more about the ancestry of these participants. It is something to watch for in the coming months. What we are able to share regarding one of these founding EKAs can be seen on the token page for Gregrory T. Gibbs' ancestor Thomas Gibbs of Sandwich, Barnstable County, MA.

In other news, we now have results from 40 participants shown on our Project Findings page. The total number of our participants is now at 46, with the two newest participants' results expected in early November and late December.

Five participants have had Comprehensive Ancestral Testing (SNP) of their Y-DNA to determine their deep ancestry.

17 March 2006 - Happy 3rd Anniversary for the Gibbs Surname DNA Project.

March 17th isn't only a day to celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick, it is also the anniversary of the founding of the Gibbs Surname DNA Project. Today, as we begin our fourth year on-line, we have seen a continuous, steady rate of growth in the numbers of Gibbses participating in the Project, and as far as we know, ours is still the only Gibbs Surname DNA project in existance. We now have a total of 32 participants, representing 16 unrelated Gibbs Y-Lines. We have found matching results for three different groups of our participants; seven of us in the Carolina (E3b) Clade, three in the Giles Gibbs (R1b) clade, and now - with the addition of new participants, Sue (Gibbs) Collier and her daughter Kim (Colier) MaCarthy we have four Y-lines in the Virginia (R1b) Clade. Several recent upgrades have been ordered by members, and we are waiting as patiently as we can for the results. These pending results should come in sometime in the next 30-to-40 days.

We still have 13 unmatched participants (including a new one whose results are pending) bringing the total number of unrelated haplotypes in our project to 16. We are eager to see if our new participant will match one of the three known Clades, or any of the other 12 unmatched lines.

Four participants have had Comprehensive Ancestral Testing (SNP) of their Y-DNA to determine their deep ancestry.

14 January 2006

With the new year well underway, and the holidays behind us we can turn our thoughts and energy back toward genealogy. We are pleased to announce that the project now has 30 participants, with the addition of another Gibbs line that has been traced by conventional research back to what was Rowan County, North Carolina in the 1830s, and possibly earlier. That is where the ole Brick Wall stand for now. This new participant has ordered a 37 marker test, and we are all eagerly awaiting his test results; hoping, of course, that we can find a match among our other participants.

In this new year we are also taking what we believe is a step forward by analyzing the mutations in our matched Y-DNA signature lines to generate a chart that we believe shows the probable relationships between the lines of the living descendents in clades that contain at least three matched lines. By comparing the mutations (points of difference) in these lines we can construct a table of mutation from an unknown common ancestor (the Most Recent Common Ancestor of these lines) to the living participants in our project. The first of these charts was done for our largest clade, which we have named "The Carolina Gibbs Clade (E3b)" because these matched lines all trace their earliest known ancestors to the Colonial Carolinas. Hopefully, this analysis of the differences found in related lines will help move us forward in efforts to get around the brick walls. You can download and view a copy of the chart for the Carolina Gibbs Clade from our "Shared Research" area by clicking here. Keep in mind that these charts are based on our assumptions about mutations observed in the Y-DNA test results from the participants, and we could be wrong. This is not a scientific certainty based on some deep genetic analysis of the data - just what appears to be logical to amateur geneologists like ourselves. Anyone with an alternative analysis to offer is welcome to comment. Please address any comments to the authors of the charts.

12 December 2005

With an apology for the long hiatus in our Project Updates, we have the following to report. The Gibbs Surname DNA Project now includes 29 participants, and is still growing. Test results are in for 28 out of 29 kits that have been ordered from Family Tree DNA, and 24 participants have granted us permission to publish their results (see our Project Findings page). While this is not as large a sampling as we would like to see, the results we have in hand are enough to let us draw certain conclusions about our Gibbs origins.

As noted in the past, we are struck first by the unexpected diversity found in our sampling. Among our participants are lines that trace back to the R1b, I, I1b, J2, E3a, and E3b haplogroups. When the project started it was expected that almost all of our results would prove to be from the R1b Haplogroup, to which about half of all European males belong. The Gibbs surname is thought to have originated in England from Anglo-Norman roots, or Scotland from before the Norman Conquest and is later found among the Scots-Irish in Northern Ireland. Aside from this, in a few cases it can be shown that the surname was changed to Gibbs from Gipps (or Gypps) which can be traced back to Germany or Poland. Still other researchers have drawn a connection to a Norman French surname "De Guibe" as the source of the English "Gibbs" lines as well as those found today in France.

Given so much diversity, we believe the project will best serve all Gibbs researchers (participants and nonparticipants alike) if we continue to function as a "clearing house" where the STR Y-DNA signatures of the participating individuals can be compared, sorted out, and - where related - grouped by clade (matched haplotypes). We continue to invite and encourage participants and interested researchers to share what they know (from conventional research) to be true about their Gibbs lines, and to allow us to publish that information. By overlaying the Y-DNA signature information on what conventional research has shown, we can help each other focus our time, energy and resources on the most profitable areas of research and away from unrelated lines.

28 April 2004

More Results are in and we have yet another previously unknown match for a new participant, whose results (through the first 25 markers) are 100% identical to those found in our cluster of Colonial Virginia Gibbs haplotypes. This now gives us two distinct clusters that represent unrelated Gibbs lines that were present in Virginia and the Carolinas prior to the American Revolution. The new participant hasn't authorized us to share his name or the name of his earliest known ancestor yet, but his results have been posted anonymously on our Project Findings page.

In other news, we have also received the upgrade to 37 markers for our Project Webmaster, David Gibbs, and for Christine Searcy's Gibbs line up to the 25-marker level. These new results show a 34/37 match between the Y-Lines of Project Administrator George Gibbs' Rev. John Gibbs, and David's Ezekiel Gibbes lines, which FTDNA considers as falling well within the degree of mismatch that would be expected for related surname lineages in Western Europe. Christine's additional results, along with her previous 12-marker match, reveals that her Y-Line (from James Gibbs of Rutherford County, NC) is actually a perfect 25/25 match with George Gibbs' Y-Line (from Rev. John Gibbs of McDowell County, NC). It will be interesting to see how closely her last string of markers (to the 37-marker level) match with George and David's lines. Since George and David's 37-marker results match 34/37, we can definately see a branching off from the original haplotype from which these three Y-Lines decend.

You can view all these latest results by visiting our Project Findings page.

17 March 2004 - Happy 1st Anniversary for the Gibbs Surname DNA Project.

The Gibbs Surname DNA Project reached a major milestone today as we begin our second year on-line. We have seen a steady rate of growth in the numbers of Gibbses participating in the Project, and as far as we know, it is still the only Gibbs Surname DNA project in existance. We now have a total of 19 participants, representing 12 unrelated Gibbs Y-Lines. We have found matching results for six of our participants which were previously unknown. Several recent upgrades have been ordered by members, and we are waiting as patiently as we can for the results. (Results have been delayed recently, as the success of Family Tree DNA has caused their lab to be overwhelmed. We hope to have these pending results sometime in the next 30-to-40 days.

29 February 2004

More Great News! Another previously unknown match has been found for a new participant, Christina Gibbs Searcy. Her results (from testing a DNA sample provided by her nephew, Stephen Ray Gibbs) are an exact match to the Y-lines of our Project Administrator, George H. Gibbs, and our Project Webmaster, David L. Gibbs. Christine purchased the 37-marker test, and received the results for the first 12 markers on February 25th. These markers match 12/12 with the first 12 markers of George's Rev. John Gibbs, and David's Ezekiel Gibbes lines, which establishes a positive relationship between their earliest known ancestors, and Christine's earliest known ancestor, James Gibbs of Rutherford County, North Carolina. See all the details by visiting our Project Findings page. Since George and David have both upgraded their 24 marker results to the 37-marker level, we should have a clearer picture of the commonality between these three lines when all the results are in.

In other news, we have also updated the Project Findings page to allow us to display results for the 37 marker test, and we have added links to contact information for several participants who wish to be the Point Of Contact for their respective Y-Lines. We now have 19 participants representing 12 unique 12-marker signatures, 11 unique 24-marker signatures, and 1 unique 37-marker signature.

4 January 2004

Happy New Year to all our project participants and visitors. As we begin 2004 we are glad to report that our project continues to grow. We now have 17 participants, with several others who are planning to participate soon. The haplotypes taking part in our project now include 12 unique 12-marker strings and 10 unique 25-marker strings. Several participants have elected to upgrade their results to the 37-marker level and we expect to start receiving these additional results by mid-to-late February.

By upgrading your results (or by initially ordering the 37-marker test, if you are a new participant) you can reduce the estimated time to the most recent common ancestor that you share with others who match your results. For more information on how this level of testing improves on the other levels go to the FamilyTree DNA web page about this new test.

25 December 2003

Today we officially launched the new and improved web site for our Gibbs Surname DNA Project. To date, we have 16 participants among whom we have identified nine distinct lines (haplotypes) of folks with the Gibbs name. We have discovered previously unknown matches within two haplotypes.

22 October 2003

Great News! We found a previously unknown match between a new member, David Lee Gibbs of Upland, California and our Project Administrator, George H. Gibbs. Their DNA markers match 24/25 which establishes a positive relationship between their earliest known ancestors, Ezekiel Gibbes of Union Co., SC (David's) and Rev. John Gibbs of Burke Co., NC (George's). See all the details by visiting our Project Findings page.

10 September 2003

The Gibbs Surname DNA Project just crossed the six-month mark and we are very pleased by the response so far. As of August 2003, 12 Gibbs have taken part in the project. We now have results from seven tests that represent six different Gibbs families. Several early colonial lines from America and three well-researched lines from England have participated so far. Thanks to all of you who have spread the word among Gibbs surname researchers.

The results have not been at all what we expected going into the project. People with names associated with trades such as Weaver, Smith, Miller, Tanner, Mason, Baker and Carpenter should expect wide genetic diversity within their surname. The same would hold true for names associated with places. We did not expect the Gibbs to display such genetic diversity. Surprisingly, based on Y-chromosome results the Gibbs display considerably more genetic diversity than one might expect from a random sample of native Englishmen.

The thought of finding a place which most Gibbs could look to as an ancestral home is no longer an option. Nor is the fact that two Gibbs lived in proximity a few hundred years ago a guarantee that they were actually related. With respect to family trees, it also makes any leaps of faith based on compelling, but undocumented data very risky.

The good news is that if Gibbs continue to join the surname project as they have been, we will be able to glean an understanding of which Gibbs families are indeed genetic cousins. In addition, knowing your line is not connected to certain other Gibbs is almost as important as knowing with whom you are related. It keeps one from wasting time and effort on false leads and potentially investing hundreds of hours of work on a line that might be unrelated.

George Gibbs, the project administrator, has answered some FAQs on the project web site and you are invited to submit any additional questions you might have about the project.

For anyone who has not encountered DNA testing for genealogy so far, here is a VERY brief overview. Western Europe was populated in waves over thousands of years, some groups moved North just after the great Ice Age, some came thousands of years later and brought agriculture from the Fertile Crescent, and some came from Eastern Europe. Later the Romans along with their slaves mingled with the populations of lands they occupied. Over time, soldiers and traders from the Mediterranean and the Orient also blended with the population of Europe.

The use of surnames in Europe is a fairly recent development, perhaps going back about 800 to a 1000 years. Little did we know when we began using surnames, that all along nature had given us a biochemical surname. Each of us is a mixture of the DNA of our parents, and over time there is a great deal of dilution. However, there is an exception. The Y-chromosome is passed on virtually unchanged from fathers to sons. Scientists expect a marker on the Y-chromosome to change (mutate) only once in every 500 "events" (an "event" in this case is the birth of a male child in a given Y-line or haplotype). Statistically, if we look at the markers used in the FTDNA 25-marker testing, we should expect to find a 50% chance of a mutation occurring on one marker once in every ten male births. Stated another way, if a man had ten sons there would be a slightly better than even chance that one of his sons would have a mutation in one marker of his Y-DNA signature, making his signature one allele off from his father and his brothers. The other sons would probably carry signatures that were identical to their fathers'. Another way to say this is that if we look at the same 25 markers in the 10 sons (a total of 250 markers) there is a 50% chance that one of the 250 markers will be different from his father's marker. This is also true for 10 male children born of different (but related) fathers who shared a common Y-DNA signature. Thus if two Gibbs men are tested who shared a common ancestor within the past few hundred years, their results should be identical, or nearly identical.

In addition to finding matches among living individuals, because the Y-chromosome changes so gradually, geneticists can also identify which group of prehistoric people the first male in your line descended from - for example, Celts, Vikings, Eastern Europeans, or even more exotic connections. A word of caution, this should not be confused with ethnicity. This Y-chromosome identity survives thousands of years, but over the course of a thousand years, you have the DNA of millions of ancestors in you. So, for example, if a Roman soldier 2000 years ago fathered a child in England, any male ancestor today would carry his somewhat altered biochemical surname from the Mediterranean region. Yet any trace of his other ethnicity would be diluted beyond recognition.

Nevertheless, this gradual change provides more intriguing information. Each participant has access to a database of Recent Ethic Origins. Using the above example of the Roman soldier, two thousands years ago he would have had hundreds of male relatives who carried his biochemical surname. Some may have been soldiers who went to Germany, Spain, France or Portugal; later others may have been sailors who were the first Europeans to travel to Polynesia. So looking at the database, one may find people who share the roots of this original biochemical surname scattered all over the globe. The database is arranged in order of mutation steps; one marker difference (one-step), two-steps all the way to four-steps. It is truly a fascinating experience on many levels.

So please visit the project web site, it has much more information and many helpful links.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped promote the project.

11 May 2003

Great news. A Warwickshire, England Gibbs family member who can trace his family back to 1600, and with a couple of gaps back to 1212, is taking part in the Gibbs Surname DNA Project.

His participation is most welcome, because this line may have several descendants in North America.

1 May 2003

Since the last update 3 new lines have been added to the Gibbs Surname DNA Project.

One can be traced to the 1630's in England and a few years later in New England.

Another is an early American line from NC. This is the second of two NC lines, which so far through conventional genealogy have not been connected.

Finally, we have a line from TN which dates to the mid 1800's. This participant hopes to match existing lines to break through a brick wall.

The project now has seven participants.

25 March 2003

DNA Surname Update

We're pleased to announce the participation in our Gibbs DNA surname project of a Gibbs from England. He has traced his family to around 1690. His line has early ties to Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Dorset. He has agreed to share his early family tree with participants who share a common ancestor.

Our Gibbs line has been tested and soon we will know if we are connected through a distant English ancestor. Our family tree, which we've documented to 1755, is available online in case you are tested and your line matches ours. A simple test which only requires a swab of the cheek and costs less that a hundred dollars will let you know if you are related to either of our lines.

We are amateur genealogists who, like hundreds of other families, use the services of FamilyTreeDNA. We have no financial interest in their services, our goal is to identify our earliest common ancestors through genetic testing. Together with other Gibbses we can identify which Gibbs lines in North America are connected, the remotest common ancestor of each line, and how we are connected to other Gibbses of the world.

There are two possible Y-Chromosome test. Each test simply identifies markers on the Y-Chromosomes which, like a surname, are passed on from fathers to sons. The "budget" test costs $99 and identifies 12 markers. ($149 without group rate) This is enough to determine if a genetic connection exists. This test makes sense if, in this particular case, you merely want to see if you are related to our British participant or our Colonial American line. It also makes sense if you sponsor a test for someone from another line to test a theory. And it makes sense if you have hit a brick wall and simply want to see if you are connected to "someone". Even if you don't match right away, as more Gibbses are tested you may later.

The next step up is a test which looks at 25 Y-Chromosome markers. We selected this test for our group because it provides much more useful information. If you are serious about genealogy and are in it for the long haul, we recommend this test when you are testing your own line. It is, however, possible to take the budget test and upgrade to the 25-marker test later. The 25-marker test costs $169, taking the budget test and the upgrade later would cost $20 extra. ($209 without the group rate.)

17 March 2003

We are a group of amateur Gibbs genealogists who have started a Gibbs Surname DNA Project.

Recently when one of our group was researching his maternal lines he was amazed by the rapid and extensive progress one line had made using a DNA surname project. Many family researchers had suspected connections among various colonial Americans in several states named Hooper, but no paper documentation had ever been found. Suddenly, the DNA project confirmed a number of relationships and increased the family tree dramatically. That motivated this Gibbs researcher to be tested and start a Gibbs Surname Project.

After looking into the various Surname Projects, one company in particular seemed to frequently surface, FamilyTree DNA, Inc. They work with Dr. Michael Hammer, a highly respected geneticist from the University of Arizona. It is a company founded strictly for performing genealogical DNA testing and analysis. Taking the test is simple (a swab of the cheek), done at home, and mailed to the lab.

By starting a surname project we receive a group rate of $169 for a 25-Marker Y-Chromosome test. The regular individual rate is $209. Interestingly, our practice of passing on surnames almost mimics nature. Fathers pass on to sons a set of Y-chromosome markers virtually unchanged from generation to generation, figuratively it is somewhat like a biochemical last name. The Gibbs males of a line will share these ≥markers≤ just like they share a common surname. It doesn't reveal much individual information, but it does confirm a recent common ancestor. Even so, FamilyTreeDNA goes to great lengths to insure privacy.

You will be given a four digit number which will accompany your specimen to the lab. This number, not your name, will connect you to the results. The laboratory will not know your identity. FamilyTreeDNA will receive the results which are stored under your 4-digit number. Their information relating your name and number are stored only on an offline computer.

The Surname Project will allow Gibbs to test family traditions, hunches, theories, and it could help solve disputes. It will connect various lines, validate research and show us where more research is needed. Exploring the genetic relationship of a group of twenty well researched Gibbs lines from the 1700πs would be a tremendous genealogical resource.

Without a lot of fanfare, we have entered a new era in genealogy. Over 450 other surnames have already established projects. This is doubtless the most important development since the introduction of the census. The tools are now available and reasonably priced, all we need is participation to solve the questions which we all have.

We invite you to inform yourself and join us in this exciting project to discover our Gibbs family history.