The Devon DNA project is a Y-DNA and mtDNA geographical project for everyone with patrilineal or matrilineal ancestry from the English county of Devon. Participants can order either a Y-DNA (Y-chromosome) test to find out about their patriline (your father, your father's father, your father's father's father, etc) or a mitochondrial DNA test to learn about their matriline (your mother, your mother's mother, your mother's mother's mother, etc). The only requirement for joining the project is that participants must have a documented paper trail to Devon on the patriline for the Y-DNA test or on the matriline for the mtDNA test.

The project also welcomes participants who have taken the Family Finder autosomal DNA test. To qualify for the project with a Family Finder test you must have documented Devon ancestry on at least one branch of your family tree within the last five generations. If you have tested at AncestryDNA, MyHeritage DNA or 23andMe (v3, v4 and v5 chips only) you can transfer your data to FTDNA so that you can participate in the Family Finder database and join the Devon DNA Project. A small fee of $19 is required to access additional features such as the chromosome browser and the MyOrigins report. For details see the FTDNA page on the autosomal DNA transfer programme.

If your ancestor has emigrated please provide details of the emigrant ancestor documenting how you have proven the link with Devon (eg, an obituary, a newspaper article, a birth or death certificate, etc).

Please note that the project is not able to accept deep-rooted lines from America where the only connection with Devon is in the 1500s or 1600s. These pedigrees are prone to error and are very difficult to verify. There is also the possibility of a "non-paternal event" leading to the introduction of non-Devon DNA. If your surname is from a distant American line please find someone of more recent Devon origin to represent the surname on your behalf.

If you have any questions about the project please contact the Group Administrator or post your query on the Devon DNA Message Board which has kindly been provided by the Devon Family History Society.

Free DNA tests
For certain surnames FREE Y-DNA TESTS are available which are sponsored by the relevant surname projects. To see details of the current sponsorship offers please visit our news page. See also the offers of free DNA tests in the ISOGG Wiki.

Devon background
Devon is the third largest county in England with a present-day population in excess of one million. It is one of only three counties to possess a north and south coast. The sea has therefore played a major part in the history of the county. The name 'Devon' derives from the name of the Celtic people known as the Dumnonii who inhabited the south-west of England from the Bronze Age onwards. The county has a long history of settlement. Kent's Cavern in Torquay is the oldest recognisable human dwelling in Britain and the country's oldest scheduled ancient monument. Remains and artefacts dating back half a million years have been found in the cavern. A jawbone excavated from the cave in the 1920s is the earliest human remains found in the British Isles and dates back to around 40,000 years ago. Human skeletons have also been found in the nearby caves at Brixham. With the onset of the last Ice Age the climate cooled and 20,000 years ago all but the southern extremity of Britain was covered in ice sheets. The human population retreated to refugia in warmer locations in Europe. It was only as the ice melted around 12,000 years ago that humans returned to the British Isles. In the Palaeolithic period Devon was sparsely populated by nomadic hunter-gatherers. By the Bronze Age a substantial population had settled on Dartmoor and continued to occupy the area until the early Iron Age. To this day the area is still dotted with the remnants of the many Iron Age hill forts. It is these hill fort settlers who mainly constitute the Dumnonii, "the people of the land". During the Roman occupation Exeter was the most westerly Roman town in Britain and became the terminus of the great frontier road known as the Fosse Way. In the ensuing centuries the county was invaded by Angles, Saxons, Danes, Vikings and Normans. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 the population of Devon was estimated to be between sixty and eighty thousand. In 1801 the population had risen to 340,308. The nineteenth century saw the beginnings of the mass emigration movement. Men, women and sometimes whole families emigrated to Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and many Devon place names and surnames can today be found in these countries.

Surnames only began to be adopted in Devon from the twelfth century onwards. Surnames and Y-DNA normally follow the same pathway, but the link is often broken because of illegitimacy, adoption, aliases, or other surname changes. By comparing our DNA we can find our genetic cousins from our most distant past and from more recent times. The project provides a repository for all haplotypes from Devon whether the person has tested within a surname, geographical or haplogroup project. For the purposes of genealogical research it is best to test within a surname project. There are however many Devon names which are not yet included in surname projects or which are included only in American projects. There are also people of Devon origin who are adopted or who are from an illegitimate line for whom a surname project is not appropriate. The Devon DNA project therefore provides a facility for those who are not yet able to join a surname project to take advantage of project pricing and compare their results with other people from the same geographical area. It also provides an opportunity for those who are the last in their direct paternal or maternal line to test and store their DNA for future research. Family Tree DNA is the only company which provides archival storage of your DNA sample for 25 years so that you or your descendants can take advantage of future developments in the field of genetic genealogy and order new tests as they become available. The project also provides an opportunity for those wishing to learn more about their deep ancestry.

It will eventually be possible to build up a picture of the genetic composition of the people of Devon and to discover more about their ancestral origins. Devon and Cornwall have always been somewhat isolated from the rest of the country. Will this isolation be reflected by a lack of genetic diversity in the people of Devon? Did the Vikings and the Romans leave a genetic legacy in the county? It is hoped that the project will eventually provide answers to some of these questions. The value of the project will grow over time as more people join and more results are available for comparison.

Privacy
The privacy of project members is respected at all times. The project administrator strictly adheres to the Family Tree DNA Group Project Administrator Terms and Policies and the ISOGG Project Administrator Guidelines. See also the Family Tree DNA Privacy Policy and Terms of Service  and the Learning Center pages on DNA Group Projects. For information about the FTDNA privacy settings see the article in the FTDNA Learning Centre on Privacy and Sharing.

Disclaimer
The Devon DNA Project is an independent genealogical research study run by a volunteer project administrator. The group administrator receives no payment or incentives from Family Tree DNA or from any other organisation or institution. The project receives no funding, and participants are responsible for the costs of their own tests. There is no guarantee that every participant will match anyone in the Devon DNA project or in the wider Family Tree DNA database.

Member information and data obtained from the Devon Project must be attributed to the project, the administrator and Family Tree DNA. Please notify the administrator when using data for public or private research.

© 2009-2024 Devon DNA Project. All Rights Reserved.