What’s a Clan?

In the traditional sense, a clan is loosely defined as a group of people who have a common ancestor.  In the case of the James River Viking Clan, conventional genealogic research suggests that our most recent common ancestor (MRCA) was an individual named Childers (perhaps spelled "Childers" at the time) who was born in the late sixteenth century in England, most likely in the County York.  Public records generated in Henrico County, Virginia indicate that he and/or his immediate descendants immigrated to America sometime prior to the middle 1600’s and eventually settled on land adjacent to the James River. Given names of "William," "Abraham" and "Philemon" Childers are common during this early period in this area of the country.  Almost 400 years later, some descendants still reside in the general region of the original settlement, while many more have since spread throughout the United States.  The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Surname Index estimates there were at that time about 30,000  people in the U.S. having the Childers surname and about 25,000 with the Childress surnames, along with a couple of thousand having related variations. There is a good chance that at least one-half of the 57,000 total Childers/ress surnames listed are descendants of the original James River settlers and could rightfully be considered part of this James River Viking Clan. 

In genetic-based genealogy, a paternal-based clan may be defined as a group of males whose Y-DNA signatures demonstrate that they descend from a common ancestor within the confines of a genealogical time period of about 1,000 years.  In addition, the number of minor Y-DNA variations (mutations) between individuals in such a group can be statistically analyzed to estimate the maximum number of generations back to their MRCA.  At a minimum, genetic analysis of a male’s 25-marker Y-DNA test results must show that he and at least one validated member of an established clan have at least a 25% probability of descending from a MRCA who lived within the past 24 generations (within the last 800 years or so). 

Based on such criteria, several distinct genetic groups (clans) were recognized among individuals with Childers, Childress, or related surnames within a DNA-based family history project created by FamilyTreeDNA in the early 2000’s.  The project, called the Childress-Childers Family DNA Project, increased in membership from a handful in 2003 to over 150 some fifteen years later. One of the sub-groups, designated as “Viking” in the project, totaled over half of the membership.  In March 2013, FTDNA granted full project status to the “Viking” group, who then adopted the name “James River Viking Clan Project” (JRV Clan).

A Master Family Tree has been established for the James River Viking Childers/Childress participants.  The Project Administrators for this project all have extensive research knowledge in the genealogical area of the Childers/Childress surname.  In addition, comprehensive research has been undertaken for many years by earlier family genealogists.  One of the most often quoted family researcher was Alberta Marjory Dennstedt who passed away in 2009.  Her family research is highly regarded by all and forms the basis for our "Master Gedcom" which converts her years of original research into a comprehensive database, commencing with our most distant paternal ancestor whom we believe to be Ralph Chelders, born circa 1545 in Hunslet, Leeds, United Kingdom.

An anomaly in this project is that there are many (10, as of July 2017) surnames in this project that are not "Childers" or "Childress" or any derivative thereof.  There are several explanations for this occurrence which appears with some regularity of most all surname projects at FamilyTreeDNA.  Estimates generally suggest that about 5% of participants in these Y-DNA tests will find that there "real" surname is not what they expected; i.e., their Y-DNA results match up perfectly with a different surname.  In this project we find that we have about three times the average.  Undocumented adoptions, simple name changes, infidelity, pre-genealogical name variations all contribute to these "non-aligning paternity events."  One of our objectives is to assist project members in discovering the root cause of their paternity misalignment.

Our Primary Project Goal is to utilize participant-furnished documentation and Y-DNA results for all testers that will facilitate the connection of every James River Viking participant to an existing entry in the above-noted Family Tree.