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My great-great-great-grandfather, James ROFE, a Thatcher, migrated with his family from Cranbrook in Kent to South Australia in about 1840. The family had been in Cranbrook at least from the late 1600s. There is also a big family of RELF that is based in Cranbrook in the same period. I am in touch with Chris & Helen Relf from that family (sadly not true as years of research have not revealed a link). So far we haven't found a connection between the two families but I suspect there is a connection before the time of written records but after the time of the adoption of surnames. Nowadays there is a simple test, which can prove or disprove this theory.
This is a test of DNA that comes from the Y-chromosome (found only in men) obtained by swabbing the inside of the cheek. The cotton swab is then posted off to a company in the USA (family Tree DNA) and after the DNA is analysed the results come back (in the simplest test) as a string of 12 numbers. This string of numbers can then be compared with the string of numbers from other men. If the men are related there will be a close similarity in the numbers obtained.
The Y-chromosome is unique among our chromosomes in that it is inherited unchanged (except for rare mutations) by a son from his father down through the generations. Thus, the Y-chromosome of our ROFE/RELF ancestor lives on today in his ROFE/RELF male descendants. The fact that there are some rare, minute, changes called mutations allows us to determine how closely two males are related and therefore get an idea when their common ancestor lived. If there were no mutations all ROFE/RELF descendants of a single ancestral male would have an identical sequence of 12 numbers from the DNA test.
I have had a DNA test done on a ROFE cousin who lives in south Australia. The results were really thrilling as it turns out that he has a particular rare mutation (known as null439) that occurs in only about one in a thousand men. This mutation occurred perhaps 3000 to 6000 years ago and all men directly descended in the male line from this man will have this mutation. We know that my ROFE cousin is descended from this Null439 ancestor and all we need to do to find out if other ROFE or RELF (RELPH, RALF, etc) men are related to him is to do the 12 marker DNA test on them and see if they have the null439 mutation.
This is very exciting as we now have a method of defining which of our ROFE/RELF trees are related to each other even before the time of written records or when written records are absent. I would love to be able to contact as many male RELF descendants as possible to tell them of this exciting development. How would you recommend I go about about this? Could I put an article in the next 'Wolfpack' or perhaps you have email addresses for them I could contact them in this way.
I have very basic web pages set up for my Hocking and ROFE projects. Both need a lot of work but here they are:
Hocking etc: www.familytreedna.com/public/hocking
Rofe/Relf etc.: www.familytreedna.com/public/rofe
Stephanie Hocking, email: ccmarren@cobweb.com.au
As is the Society's policy we have not passed on any email addresses to Stephanie but we hope some of you may contact her on this fascinating subject. I have put together some information on DNA research, which covers this subject in more detail.
Some useful websites are:-
Article on DNA and Family History: www.genuki.org/big/genetics.html/
UK DNA Tests offered:
www.oxfordancestors.com
www.ezdna.com
www.familytreedna.com
www.familygenetics.co.uk
Research into the Y chromosome is also being carried out by Mark Jobling at the University of Leicester Department of Genetics. His article on surnames and genetics is available for download from website: www.le.ac.uk/genetics/maj4/index.html
Current prices vary but I have been quoted £75 for a 17 marker YSTR Test and £129 for a 26 marker YSTR Test. This price could be discounted if a group of people were to be tested at the same time.
When research of records has not produced a family link then a DNA study would indicate if known groups of the same surname are related. In our case we have several Kent, Sussex and London groups who, as far as we know, are not related but a DNA study may indicate differently and perhaps encourage further research into historical records to prove such links.
The 2004 distribution of the surname RELF was 775 individuals, RELPH was 575, RELFE was 45 and REALF 27 within the UK. These figures were supplied by Family Genetics Ltd. Compared with some other surnames this is a modest number and gives a better chance of being able to find DNA links.
I am sure we will hear a lot more on this subject in the future, as study results are made available. We would like to hear from members who have had or are thinking of having their DNA analysed.