Nearly 90% of the Childers/Childress surname project members share a common male ancestor dating to the 17th century. It is believed this common ancestor (Abraham and/or Philemon) immigrated to America from the Yorkshire area of England, settling around the James River, Virginia area. If you have the surname of Childers or Childress or a variant thereof and your Y-DNA tests place you in this group, join us in our efforts to trace our common heritage through the use of some great administrative tools and historical documentation and shared family trees and archived photographs. Enrollment is free if you have a Y-DNA test on file and if your Y-DNA matches the group's collective signature. IF YOU ARE AN ELIGIBLE MALE CHILDERS/CHILDRESS TESTER WHO HAS NOT YET RECEIVED COMPLETED Y-DNA TEST RESULTS, YOU SHOULD FIRST JOIN THE CHILDRESS SURNAME PROJECT BEFORE ENROLLING IN THIS SUB-PROJECT. We also welcome those non-Childers/Childress surname male testers whose Y-DNA results are the same as this group. We will endeavor to help you find your connection to the Childers/Childress surname. We also welcome female Childers/Childress genealogical researchers whose interests lie within the scope of this project. Such individuals may join this project if they have Mt-DNA or autosomal (FamilyFinder) FTDNA test results on file. One of the primary goals of this project is to connect contemporary members to the first-known Childers ancestors of the late 16th century. We do this by very carefully analyzing the proposed family trees of our members who have taken the FamilyTreeDNA "Big Y 700" SNP test which reveals a great deal of detailed DNA information. Once accepted, the family tree relationships are added to the "Master Family Tree" at Ancestry.com as well as a publicly accessible family tree at RootsWeb.com. If the reader has an interest in the Master Family Tree at www.ancestry.com, he or she should search for the tree labeled CHILDERS JAMES RIVER VIKING and the latest available version of this Master Tree will be found.