JET Updated on 6-21-21

Results

This page on our site is about results from the project, but with so many Taylor lines and so much genetic variety, it is hard to sum up results briefly. We can say this much about our overall results so far:

·       Taylor DNA isn't all the same.We see wide genetic diversity among our members. We've identified at least 350individual & unique Taylor lineages among the more than 1,000 members who've tested y-DNA. There is also variety in the mt-DNA and autosomal DNA. There is not one Taylor patriarch from whom we're all descended, but many Taylor families unrelated to each other in a genealogical sense. Having Y-DNA that falls into many Haplogroups is more proof of separate Taylor lines dating back many millennia.

·       The reason for the many lines of descendancy and genetic diversity is probably the occupational & multi-point origin of the name. The name seems to have been adopted by many widely-dispersed families over a relatively short period of time in the late 14th century.

·       Taylor is a common surname. It was the 13th most common name in the 2000 US census (0.31% of the population,~720,000 people) and 5th most common in England (about 350,000 people). About1,500,000 people worldwide bear the Taylor name.

·       The commonness of the name puts a premium on careful and thorough research, supplemented by DNA testing. We recommend at least a 37-marker Y-STR test to discriminate between Taylor lines.

Taylor Haplogroups  

We have identified, to date, more than 120 paternal lineage groups of multiple project members (i.e., "genetic families" or"clusters"). Most could not share a direct paternal ancestor more recent than a thousand years ago.  The following are the most common Taylor Haplogroups