The Tidewater Davenports were those Davenports who settled in the Peninsula or Neck between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers in the 1650s. They paid for their own passages, i.e., claimed no headrights, and were sufficiently wealthy to buy already patented land, i.e., they did no surveys, were not involved in the patent process. They were clearly of higher social status than the Pamunkeys, were planters and artisans of substance from the beginning, were involved with both Government and the Church. The given name Fortunatus was unique to the Tidewaters, and the first and most notable Birkett Davenport (of Culpeper County) was a Tidewater. Prior to the Revolution, these Davenports located close to Atlantic waters, were to be found in counties affected by tides, hence the label “Tidewater.” Most of the early records of these Davenports have survived, need to be compiled and organized. (Thank you John Scott Davenport for this description.)
Links
Listed below are some of websites dedicated to the Tidewater Davenports. Each represents the complete line or information about its progenitor. If you know of additional websites that might fit this same criteria – please contact the administrator at: info “at” davenportdna.com
| A good place to expand your research is the Davenport Archives website. It contains hundreds of Davenport related documents, photos, trees and includes lists of researchers and their interests. | http://DavenportArchives.com |
Tidewater Branches
The following are the known male branches of the Tidewater line. For our purposes a branch would begin with the sons of the 1st generation. If there was only one son, then we would start with the sons in the 2nd generation and so on. We would like to test at least one individual from each branch. The red highlighted entries are branches for which we do not have test participants. Of course, we will accept any Davenport participants but especially need the non-highlighted branches.
| wdt_ID | wdt_created_by | wdt_created_at | wdt_last_edited_by | wdt_last_edited_at | 1st Generation | 2nd Generation | 3rd Generation | 4th Generation | Notes | Kit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | wbdave@aol.com | 02/28/2026 04:26 PM | wbdave@aol.com | 03/05/2026 02:37 PM | William 1708-1771 | Fortunatus 1738-1771 | 36674 | |||
| 3 | wbdave@aol.com | 02/28/2026 04:27 PM | wbdave@aol.com | 03/05/2026 02:38 PM | William 1755-1847 | Allen 1807-1895 | 7575 | |||
| 14 | wbdave@aol.com | 02/13/2026 01:04 AM | wbdave@aol.com | 03/05/2026 02:39 PM | William 1755-1847 | William | 30234 |
Y-DNA Test Results
| The descendants of the Tidewater Davenports belong to Haplogroup R-P310 Note: This Haplogroup is a very “basic” group occurring about 10,000 years ago. That is about as far as we can go with the limited testing done on the participants. These are the Y-DNA results to-date of the participants descended from William Davenport. The different row colors represent the separate branches of the line. Click on the Kit # to view more information about the individual Davenport linage. The Modal haplotype is what we believe the Y-DNA of the earliest Tidewater Davenport looked like based on current results. Red and blue cells show where an individual varies from the modal. Red indicates movement upward, while blue downward. Combined pink cells represent “connected” markers where the actual difference is counted as one. |
The link below will bring up a large spreadsheet like listing of the results of all the Projects Y-DNA STR Results. The Albemarle Davenport are in Group 40.
To get the best view of your results and how they compare with others in your line, it will be necesary to view them on our public page at FTDNA. So follow these instructions.
- Go to this Full Chart FamilyTreeDNA – Davenport Surname DNA Project. This should open a new page and tab, so you can still return to this page if needed.
- In the heading on the left change the first two boxes to match These:

3. Type in “40” in the third box, and click on the magnifier.
This should bring up the result of your subgroup – 40 Tidewater Davenports
Participants
The following people are participating in the Davenport Surname DNA Project. You may view more detail for some by clicking on the link in the Ancestor column.
| Branch | Kit # | Participant | Current Residence | Earliest known Ancestor plus more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| William > Fortunatus | 36674 | Robert Davenport | New York | Tidewater Davenports. William (b. abt. 1708 Lancaster County, Virginia-1771) > Fortunatus (1738-1771) > Joseph > Shadrack > Joseph > Nicodemus (1879-1955) |
| Other / Unknown | 7575 | Michael Davenport | Georgia | William Davenport (1755-1847) from Pitt County, North Carolina > Allen (1807-1895) |
| 30234 | William Davenport | North Carolina | William Davenport (b.abt 1755 Pitt County, North Carolina) > William > Stephen > William (1879-1934) | |
| 86759 | Davenport | North Carolina |
