DNA Research Center

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Chapter 17: Y-DNA Testing

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

← Chapter 16: Wiley P. Berry | Table of Contents | Chapter 18: Some Berry Family Stories →

Chapter 17#

Y-DNA Testing#

At the beginning of the Berry Y-DNA project, all of us thought that, because of the similarity in given names, all Berry families would eventually be found to be related. After testing about 239 Berry males, we now know that there are at least 18 unrelated Berry families living in America today. At the time of this writing, there are 14 matching Y-DNA participants in our Orange County Berry Family Y-DNA project. There are currently 239 participants in this entire Berry Y-DNA project group. There are 14 separate identified families who go by the Berry surname. There is a very interesting story about how the Berry Y-DNA project got started. Our own Carolyn (Cookie) Paulson had located her ancestor, John Berry, living in Rusk County, Texas, in the 1860 census. She had found all of the archival documents from John and Mary Howell Berry down to herself. She knew that her archival trail was solid and was trying to locate John Berry’s ancestors. She had tried for many years to find who John Berry’s parents were. Cookie knew that John was born in North Carolina. She also knew that he was born in 1815. Cookie and I had corresponded on several occasions about the elusive John Berry. She once told me that she was about ready to accept any Berry from North Carolina who could pass as John Berry’s father. Knowing her as I do, she was joking, of course, since she would never approach genealogy in this unprofessional way. Because of her persistent attitude, she looked into what was involved in taking a Y-DNA test. She convinced her cousin, participant #8, to take this test and she started the Berry Y-DNA as project administrator. I asked my uncle, W.P. Berry Jr., if he would take a test and he agreed to do this. He was #18 in the Berry Y-DNA project. On July 20th, 2004, I had an email from Cookie telling me that #8 and #18 had a matching set of Y-DNA results. She also attached a picture of herself and Joyce Foster, her cousin from the John Berry line. It just so happened that we were having the local Wiley P. Berry reunion that very day. I printed a copy of the picture and made the announcement at our gathering that Sunday. After it was known that John Berry somehow descended from Robert Berry in Orange County, North Carolina, we still could not determine who John’s parents were. We did not discover this information for three more years. I located a John Berry family who was living in Fayette County, Alabama, in 1840. He was the right age and this led to us finding that Robert Berry Jr. and his entire family had moved there in 1824. It turned out that John Berry was his grandson and John Berry’s parents were George and Susan Aldridge Berry. Here we have to give credit to Victor Glenn Berry’s book, “Wagons South Wagons West” for helping verify our research. In September, 2008, Bob, Cookie, Jean, and I spent the day in Fayette County, Alabama, and visited a little town named Berry, Alabama. This town was named in honor of Thompson P. Berry, who was a son of Robert Berry Jr. We went to the courthouse and retrieved many records on this branch of our Berry family. I will add that it was a very enjoyable day in my life. I am not sure that Bob and Jean enjoyed it as much as Cookie and I did, but both were very tolerant. You can view the Y-DNA charts on page 272 that list the markers of 14 of the participants in our Orange County Berry Y-DNA Project. Y-DNA testing is continuing to become more efficient and less costly. Y-DNA testing is an excellent addition to genealogy research.

Dna on Berrytree.org

DNA Research Center

Chapter 17: Y-DNA Testing

Chapter 17#

Y-DNA Testing#