The original purpose of the Phelps yDNA project was to identify the various PHELPS family tree lines using yDNA tests through FTDNA.  Genealogy researchers got frustrated trying to sort through paper trails and encountering heavily repeated names like William, John, James, Thomas, and others.  There were so many of them who had the same names and lived so close to each other, it was virtually impossible to tell them apart.  So they turned to yDNA testing to help clarify those Phelps lines.  It has proved to be an invaluable tool in distinguishing the genetically separate Phelps lines. During this research, we have discovered numerous errors, omissions and other problems in the Phelps Family in America, by Phelps and Servin.  yDNA testing has also dispelled a myth that two well-known Phelps lines are related.  Some people were lumped together with the wrong family line.  In other cases, two or even three persons were conflated as one person which has greatly confounded researchers. While this two-volume genealogy book is a valuable guide, we do need to verify the lines with primary records and other sources such as census records, land deeds, and wills.   

Fifteen years later, we now have a well established yDNA Phelps project. We have identified more than 17 genetically separate Phelps lines in the United States and England and counting.  They all have their own unique yDNA "fingerprint".  Here are the overall results:

• We have over 17 genetically unrelated Phelps lines, proven through yDNA testing.
• The four original Phelps lines of New England are not genetically related to each other.  They all immigrated to New England before the Revolutionary War. 
  
• There is absolutely no biological relationship between the two long-assumed "brothers", William Phelps and George Phelps, in Windsor, Hartford Co., England.  They are two separate Phelps lines.
  
• None of the tested Southern Phelps lines matches the Northern Phelps lines.
• One New England Phelps descendant of William Phelps family, b. 1593, of Crewkerne, England immigrated in the 1800s from Yeovil, England and made Fulton, NY their home before moving west. 
  
• Our William Phelps line has crossed the pond and found a yDNA matching Brit! 
  
• Two Brit Phelps who took the yDNA test did not match each other and remarkably they do not match any of the Phelps lines in United States.
  
• No other Brit Phelps have been found to match any of the Phelps lines in America or Australia, etc....yet! 
  
• We do not have yDNA fingerprint for descendants of William Phelps of Teweksbury at this time. 
  

Although the New England Phelps lines are now well established, there are still many descendant lines within each Phelps family that will need verification.  In addition, we will work toward adding atDNA results to our genealogy research. The results from mtDNA is of limited use at this time, but will become more significant as the mtDNA database grows. If you are a direct descendant of a female Phelps in New England, please do let us know and you are certainly welcome to join us here.

In addition, regardless of which Phelps line you belong to, we encourage any living Phelps or Phelps descendants who are in England, Australia, and other possible places to take any kind of DNA test.