THE FAMILY TREE DNA PROJECT

In 2006 two descendants of Thomas and Mary Everett Stubbs contributed their DNA to a project sponsored by Family Tree DNA. They were Joseph (Joe) Truman Stubbs of Savannah, Georgia, and Irving Randolph Stubbs of Richmond, Virginia. Results of the study may be found at http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/s/stubbs. Click on the Results to see the DNA comparisons for all the Stubbs participants. If you click on “Patriarchs”, you will find the pedigrees for each family.

In May 1987, about 19 years prior to our participation in the DNA project, Joe and Irving Stubbs stood behind one another in an Atlanta hotel registration line. Irving was attending a conference at Emory University and Joe was there for a different purpose. When Joe heard Irving give his name, he introduced himself as a fellow Stubbs. They shook hands but did not know of their relationship to one another. In 2001, Jane Stubbs Bailey, Irving’s sister, in collaboration with her colleague Vernon Everett, Jr., published a history of the Nathaniel Everett family of Tyrrell County, North Carolina. The research for that book brought Jane into contact with another Stubbs-Everett researcher, Ron Bell of Savannah, Georgia. Ron re-introduced us to Joseph Truman Stubbs whom we learned was our distant cousin, a descendant of Thomas and Mary Everett Stubbs through their son Everett Stubbs.

Since 2006 the DNA project has provided surprising additions and qualifications to the genealogical research we have done. We learned that the DNA of our branch of the Stubbs family does not match that of descendants of the Stubbs family of Gloucester County, Virginia. William Carter Stubbs’ 1902 research seemed logical at that time, but new DNA research has given us different tools to use in tracing family relationships. Our DNA is a close match to that of an immigrant who came from Cheshire, England to Provo, Utah in the 1850’s. Information on the Utah family is found at http://www.smgf.org. We have gained relatives who descend from John Stubbs, son of Thomas and Mary Everett Stubbs. They are Gordon Stubbs, Sarah Gohlke, and Diane Allen Davisson. In 2007 through the effort of Mary Burton, a descendant of John Stubbs of Hyde and Bladen Counties, North Carolina, a DNA comparison has pointed to another close relative and given more insight into our earliest North Carolina origins. Perhaps our biggest surprise was learning that we share a close common Cheshire, England ancestor with the New England Stubbs family documented by Marjorie Stubbs Heaney in her 1992 publication, The Descendants of Richard Stubbs, 1619-1677 of Hull, Mass. Compiled from 1962 to 1983.

Other participants in the Stubbs DNA project have provided unfailing encouragement and support in learning more about our family. They have pointed us to new resources and provided explanations that help us understand DNA’s advantages and limitations. Rachel Stubbs White and Jane Stubbs in England have shared their research on various Cheshire, England families.

We hope the project continues to bring new information to our and other Stubbs families.