Staveley DNA Project
All participants in the Staveley DNA Project are encouraged to join us in the Staveley discussion forum.
Click Here to Join the Staveley DNA Project and Order Your Test Kit Online
In the 21st Century numerous Staveley families exist throughout the world. In many cases, Staveleys living today are able to trace their roots back to England or Ireland between 200-400 years ago. However, a number of Staveley families are unable to make such connections. Those emigrating to foreign lands may not have had their birth origin adequately recorded in the official documentation of their new country of inhabitance, and their early family origins are unknown. In other cases, some have successfully traced their family lines back for a number of years, but have reached a roadblock in their research due to a lack of early genealogical records, and connections to other nearby Staveley family groups cannot be established via traditional historic records.
The Staveley DNA Project has evolved out of a desire by a number of contemporary researchers to try to establish whether some well known Staveley family groups in early England and Ireland share a common ancestor. Other Staveley researchers, in the United States for example, are attempting to determine if their immigrant ancestors connect back to known family groups in Britain.
If you are male, and carry the surname of Staveley, you can become part of this exciting project that will attempt to determine how some of the modern Staveley family groups may have been related in the past, where traditional research methods have thus far failed to establish a connection.
How Do I Participate in the Staveley DNA Project?
The Staveley DNA Project analysis is being conducted through the FamilyTreeDNA testing service. If you are a male, carrying the surname Staveley, or a variant of the Staveley name, to order your personal testing kit to participate in this project, click here.
Which Test do I Choose?
To determine whether two individuals are genetically related, the 12 marker Y-DNA test is sufficient. You may select any of the Y-DNA tests for this project (12, 25, 37, 67 marker). If a match is found with the 12 marker test, participants may wish to then upgrade to the 25, 37, or 67 marker test. The purpose of upgrading the test is to reduce the time frame to the most recent common ancestor (MCRA) between participants (related family groups).
What About Surname Variants?
A number of variants of the Staveley name have arisen over the centuries. The most common spellings of Staveley (including Stavely and Stavley) are obviously encouraged to join. As are those carrying the surname variant Stevely, especially if you are of Irish or Scottish ancestry. There has been some question in recent years whether some Staley, Stabler or Stalvey families may have origins with the early Staveleys, especially where the family groups were historically residing in the same or adjoining parishes. Joining the Staveley DNA Project may help to establish if these variants have any connection between the known Staveley family groups.
I Haven't Compiled My Staveley Family Tree, Can I Still Participate in the DNA Project?
Yes! However, it is helpful to have some idea as to at least your more recent ancestry. After you submit your DNA test, it will take 7-8 weeks for your test results to arrive. In the meantime, we strongly encourage you to join the discussion forum. Other members in the group may well have already researched part of your family in local parish or census records, and we may be able to help you determine which of the modern lineages you descend from. Your DNA test results may then be able to help establish connections between your family group, and other known Staveley family lines.
Other Special Circumstances
As is occasionally seen, a Staveley male may have produced illegitimate children in the past, and for that reason the children may have officially inherited the surname of their mother instead of the name Staveley. If male children were produced in such a relationship, their male descendants may still carry that non-Staveley surname. If you suspect such a circumstance occurred along your branch of your family tree, and that you are actually descended from a Staveley, you may be able to prove (or disprove) that connection via the test. However, if at anytime between the illicit Staveley relationship and now the surname changed (i.e. through a female marriage) the test will not be useful to you, as you must be descended through an unbroken male line for you to be carrying the same Y-DNA as your purported Staveley ancestor.
Confidentiality
To protect your privacy, FamilyTreeDNA only shares limited information with their testing facility. Your sample will be assigned a kit number, and only this number and your surname will be seen by the testing facility.
By enrolling in the Staveley DNA Project, your test results will be sent to you, and the Staveley DNA Project coordinator will also be able to view your results, and your contact information so that participants in the project can learn more about their ancestry when a match is found. No other individuals will have access to your results unless you personally choose to share them, and no results will be posted to this website without the express permission of a project participant.
Where Can I Go to Learn More About FamilyTreeDNA?
See the FamilyTreeDNA website FAQ and Privacy Policy.
Has All of My Traditional Genealogical Research Been a Waste of Time and/or Money?
Absolutely not! DNA testing will not replace the numerous hours you've spent researching your ancestors via original historic records. The converse is also true, in that the test results will not provide you with your ancestry in a nutshell. DNA testing has its limitations. The purpose of the test is to determine if there are genetic connections between groups of Staveleys. The principle question being asked here is do different Staveley family groups share a common Ancestor? The test will determine if there is a genetic link or not. If a genetic match is found the test cannot determine WHO the common male ancestor was. The results may be able to help determine roughly WHEN the common ancestor existed, but that ancestor's identity will need to be determined through traditional research methods, such as parish or census records for example.