The Davenport Surname DNA Project has been in existence since 2003. That means that soon we will be approaching a quarter century. We now have over 520 participants from around the world, with just four American lines – Newberry, Pamunkey, Albemarle, and Humphrey account for almost 30% of the Davenport DNA participants.
Much of the project’s growth took place within its first ten years. That early progress was invaluable, revealing how much we still had to learn and opening up new possibilities for exploration. However, it also meant that many of the initial test results were based on older technology. At the time, testing 37 STR markers was considered advanced and effective for identifying Davenport lines and branches. Today, we have access to more powerful tools like Big-Y testing, which offer much deeper insights into our genetic history. This is precisely the purpose of this page.
To progress, we need more volunteers—specifically, mentors or “parents” for each lineage. For instance, a mentor for the Newberry line might reach out to other Newberry descendants to gauge their involvement, discover if they’ve uncovered new genealogical information, and encourage them to upgrade their DNA tests if appropriate. While ideally, mentors would be members of the same line, this is not a strict requirement.
In the early days of the project, we had unofficial mentors like John Scott “Doc” Davenport, who was an authority on the Pamunkey line. His involvement spurred many participants to join and research their line, until his passing in 2013. Since then, activity in that line has been limited. Meanwhile, the Newberry’s, also one of the largest groups, have also remained relatively inactive for the same period. Today, a few well-placed Big-Y tests could potentially pinpoint their English origins. Several other lines are also on the verge of similar breakthroughs—they just need that extra push to move forward.
We’ve made tremendous success using Big-Y testing in England, connecting various Cheshire Davenport branches and identifying ancestral homes for the American lines that match them. We hope to replicate that success on a smaller scale with the other lines. Can you volunteer? Contact the administrator to see what you can do.
Newberry Davenports – Descendants of Isaac Davenport (? – 1749) of South Carolina
The Newberry line is perhaps the line closest to being on the verge of a breakthrough connection. There are 36 participants. Only one has taken the Big-Y test and another named Danforth with a known name change from Davenport. The Danforth is a descendant of Francis Davenport and early testing confirmed the belief that Fancies was the father of Isaac. Francis has vital records in England, but his parentage is not known. A little research might change that. Isaac had four sons. Ideally, we would try to get a Big-Y test from a descendant of each. The one Newberry Big-Y we do have does not know which son he descends from. The two Big-Y’s we have to work with are very close matches with several Johnsons and an Anderson. This needs to be investigated.
Pamunkey Davenports – Descendants of Davis Davenport (bef 1660-1735) of Virginia
The Pamunkey Line is another just waiting for a few more Big-Y tests for a breakthrough. They have 51 participants with three Big-Y tests. There has always been speculation that the parents of Davis came from England or Ireland, put nothing has been confirmed yet. The Pamunkey participants represents a good spread of sons and grandsons of Davis descendants which might give us multiple SNP’s helping to define branches. The Pamunkey’s have matched a couple Hognett’s since the beginning, but that link appears to come later, maybe in the late 1700’s. There are a couple Sharps that closely match one of the Pamunkey’s. A Dobbs is also in the picture.
Humphrey Davenports – Descendants of Humphrey Davenport (bef 1640-1680) of Barbados and New Jersey
The Humphrey line has 31 participants and one Big-Y test. Plus, it had a different set of problems. We discovered early on that Humphrey had the rare (in the US) Haplogroup formally known as J1. Virtually all the other Davenports were from the very broad Haplogroup known as Rb1, which is most common in Western Europe. J1 is found in the southern Middle East. So, Humphrey could not possibly be related to any of the other known Davenport lines. It was pretty easy to determine a Humphrey even with only 25 markers. If they were J1, they were a Humphrey. So, most didn’t bother to upgrade beyond 37 markers. However, one unsung hero came on the scene. He was a Calkins who knew when his Humphrey line became Calkins. Over a period of several years he paid for 111 marker upgrades for every Humphrey participant. For years there were no other matches to the Humphrey line in the entire FTDNA database. The Calkins line was a paternity event, but there is also a Trurston that needs investigated. It is also likely we could discover a couple more SNP’s in the group.
Mackinaw Davenports – Descendents of Ambrose Davenport (1771-1858) of Virginia and Mackinaw Michigan
The Mackinaw line is fairly small, only a couple participants. However, they do have two probable matches in the Chorley branch of the Cheshire line. The Y-DNA for this group does not match the Y-DNA of the parent line. Each side needs a Big-Y test to verify the match and possibly determine where their DNA came from.