Welcome to the Debenham Surname Y-DNA Project which was started in January of 2010. All Debenhams and variant surnames are welcome to take part in this exciting project. Large groups of people with these surnames live in England, Wales, Australia, and the United States. Over time spelling of the name Debenham has created many different variant surnames. Supposedly each of the variant family surnames are descendants of families that lived in the little Hamlet in Deben, England. We now know they do not all descend from Lucas de Debenham who lived in Debenham, England in 1165. Thru Y-DNA testing we can now find our true family lineages, no matter how our last names are spelled. We now have forty eight members and twenty four different family lineages which are listed in the Goals section of this website. At this time we have five confirmed Family lineages that we know did not go back to Debenham, England, The Seneca Dedmon/Manley Line, and as a tribute to Leroy Dedmon of the Dedmon Connection On-Line Newsletter and Tim Dedmon who started the Debenham Surname Y-DNA Project in 2010 which they are members of, The Norman Viking Leroy and Tim Dedmon/Tipton Line, The Tennessee Dedman Line, The Daniel Debnam Line and The James Deadman b 1770/Jamie Dedmond White Line. Thru Y-DNA testing it has now been confirmed that the Sapiston Line and the Redgrave Line identified by Frank Debenham are one and the same and as a tribute to Frank Debenham and Michael John Debenham of the One Name Study we are calling this line the Frank and Michael John Debenham line which they were members of. We now have four different Deadman Family Lines all with paper trails originating in England, The Anglo-Saxon Deadman/Dudman Line descending from Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire, England, The Christopher Deadman Family Line descending from Babergh, Neilond, Suffolk, England, The Deadman/Dedman Good Ship Charles 1674 Family Line descending from Dedham, Norfolk County, England and The Richard Deadman Family Line descending from Hooe, Sussex, England. Y-DNA is passed from Father to Son only from generation to generation without change, except for mutations. This technique allows us to identify which family lineages we are related to as well as which ones we are not related to. Male descendants from the Debenham and variant surname Family Lines may become members of the project by taking a 37 marker Y-DNA test with FamilyTreeDNA. Each member will share their known father to son lineage in the News section of this website to help with the grouping of the families. We encourage females to become members of our project by having a male relative with the Debenham or variant surname take the 37 marker Y-DNA test with FamilyTreeDNA and join our Project together thru their test. Taking the Y-DNA test is very simple, you can view a video by doing a search on the internet: "How To Take A Family Tree DNA Test - You Tube". The Y-DNA test will preserve your family's Y-DNA sequence for future generations should all of the male's in your lineage dissappear. Please consider giving a financial gift to the general fund of our project. The money will be used to help with the cost of the 37 marker Y-DNA test for new members who would not otherwise join our project.