Background
(Shown left, Whitmore Hall, Whitmore, Staffs., UK, circa 1670. Probably the oldest Whitmore residence still standing.) Our DNA study includes many variations of the name Whitmore, including family names such Wetmore and Whittemore, which originated in the United Kingdom and those such as Whitmer, Widmer, Witmer, which originated in areas of Germany and Switzerland. The spelling of the name has not consistent in the past, even within the same family. One of the goals of this study is to clarify distinct family lines regardless of spelling.
The Whitmore et al surname project will use a variety of documents and techniques to delineate the various family lines. The ultimate goal, of course, is to determine, as scientifically as possible, the ancestry of each of the participants in the project. In the process, we will hopefully prove or disprove legends that have passed from one researcher to the next without proof. This will be, without a doubt, a long-term project!
- Each participant will have an accompanying pedigree, back to the furthest Whitmore (et al) ancestor. We will need to know what documentation has led to the conclusions in these pedigrees, and which links are strictly hypotheses. These hypotheses will become the subjects of the study.
- The administrators, with the help of any and all Whitmore (et al) researchers will seek participants for each of the identified family lines.
- As the DNA samples are analyzed, we will be able to confirm or disprove the hypotheses defined, and also to create new hypotheses.
Our sole testing company has been Family Tree DNA since since the inception of the project in 2005. We continue to recommend the FTDNA 37 marker test. This has been ample to differentiate the various family groups thus far, although we would like to consider expanding some of our tests to the 67 marker tests now offered by FTDNA. In September of 2007 we added one participant (the son of an existing participant) who was tested by Relative Genetics, soon to be a part of the Ancestry DNA test program. We will continue to follow Ancestry's progress in this field. We welcome participation by any male Whitmore et al, and will consider those tested by other reputatble labs. Please contact our Project Administrators if you would like to join us with results from another lab.
Latest News - October 1, 2007
The Whitmore et al Surname DNA project is now a part of the World Families Network. After operations since the fall of 2005 on Roots Web your Group Administrators thought it was time to move to a new "home." There were several reasons for this, but first and foremost among them was the need to find a site with a SQL database server, which is needed for our "Web 2," colaborateive genealogy program., The Next Generation of genealogy site building. Put another way, it gives your group administrators a way to dig themselves out of the problem of data entry for member's family trees, by letting them enter the data themselves. This will also assure that the data shows what you want it to show, no more and no less.
In order to link our pedigree files with the DNA results, we also elected to use DNA-PAT. The author of this program, Adrian Williams (Administrator of the Williams DNA Project), provides a SQL based Project Adminsitrator's Toolkit, which greatly simplifies the problems associated with data entry, and furnishes modifications to TNG to link the two programs.
It was easy to decide on the World Families Network for our new home. All the members of the network are genetic genealogists and the site itself provides us and you with much needed support. There will be no need for the Group Administrators to prepare glosseries and explanations of just what is involved in DNA testing. The information is all there for you on the pages of WorldFamilies.net. Take time to click on the name and see what is offered. (This will open a new window for you so you can easily return to this page when you are ready to read further.)
For the moment part of our web pages will remain on the RootsWeb server with this home page, pedigree files and DNA results on WorldFamilies.net.
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Pedigrees:
Our pedigree files may be browsed and viewed by any visitor to our web page. In order to enter and edit data, participants in the project, or their proxies, will need to register and be authorized to enter and edit data. (Note: As no data has yet been entered into this database any pedigree links from the result pages will still be to our old pages on RootsWeb. As soon as we have pedigree data in the TNG database we will change the links.)
As the author of the program, Darrin Lythgoes, says on the program's home page, TNG (as the program is usually known) is a powerful way to manage and display your genealogy data on the Internet, all without generating a single page of HTML. Instead, your information is stored in MySQL database tables and dynamically displayed in attractive fashion with PHP (a scripting language).
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