An Alternate Website/Forum for Members of the

LITTLETON FAMILY Y-DNA PROJECT

(The "official" Family Tree DNA sponsored "Littleton Family DNA Project" website can be reached at
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/littleton.project/).

Our common ancestor (we hope), Sir Thomas de Littleton, K.B. (ca. 1407?-1481), author of the famous Treatise on Tenures.

Our primary goal is to discover whether John Littleton (d. 1721), who appeared in Accomack, VA, in 1669, and from whom so many American Littleton lines are demonstrably descended, is related to the Shropshire Littleton family to which Col. Nathaniel Littleton, who emigrated to Accomack, VA, in 1635, belonged.

Please pass along any suggestions, comments, gripes, questions, etc. to me at sarmatiandude@charter.net and I'll post them below.  Be sure to lead off the subject field with "For posting on the alt. DNA website:"  I look forward to hearing from you guys.

Cheers,

Scotty Littleton

Project Administrator (for Family Tree DNA)

*   *   *

Important Bulletin!

WE NOW HAVE TWENTY-TWO MEMBERS!

As of October 22, 2007,  seventeen Y-DNA test results are now available. As you'll see, Trevor Littleton (UK) is clearly not related to the family that produced John Littleton. Nor are Harry Littleton (AL), Martin Wadsworth Littleton (CA), and Larry Littleton (HI), whose ancestors came from Limerick, Ireland, in the mid-19th century.  But as you'll also see, Grover "Ted" Littleton (TN), James "Jim" G. Littleton (DE), Samuel Littleton (SC), John Ely Littleton (PA), and Tracy Littleton (DE) match completely on 25 factors, and yours truly (CA) differs from them at only one factor (464a) among the second eleven, and it's a frequently mutating allele. This would appear to mean that Jim, Ted, Samuel, John Ely, Tracy, and I almost certainly descend directly from John Littleton. Severin Franklin Littleton (OH) matches Jim, Ted, John, Samuel, John Ely, Tracy, and me perfectly on the first twelve markers, but is off by two from the first four and three from me on the second set. Nevertheless, he probably descends from John as well. Richard Eugene "Gene" Littleton (FL) differs from Jim, Ted, Samuel, John Ely, and Tracy by two factors (mutation-prone alleles 439 and 458) and by three alleles from your truly, so it's possible, but not probable, that he also descends from John. 

The upshot here seems to be that there appear to be at least five and probably six distinct Littleton lines, both here and in the U.K.  One includes Jim, Ted, John, Samuel, Tracy, me, probably Severin and possibly Gene.  Harry belongs to a second line; Martin Wadsworth Littleton to a third; and Trevor to a fourth (he matches both Harry and Martin fairly closely in the first 12 factors, but is wholly distinct from both of them on the full, 25-factor test. Chris Littleton (KY) differs from the rest of us rather significantly and almost certainly belongs to a distinct  Littleton line. The same holds for Ellery Littleton (BC, Canada).  This is even more clearly the case for Charles Littleton (OH), whose differences are consistently in double figures on both the 12-and 25 factor tests; they may reflect the fact that he belongs to the Nordic haplotype (I) rather than to the Western European haplotype (R1b1), to which the rest of the Littletons so far tested belong, together with Bill Westcott (see below).

Neither William Lilliston's (FL; we thought it might be a variant, 17th- century spelling of Littleton) nor Bill Westcott's (CT) Y-DNA are relevant; indeed, Lilliston shares haplotype I with Charles Littleton. However, I strongly suspect that descendants of the Thomas Westcote who fathered Sir Thomas de Littleton (he took his mother's surname; see the guy in the picture) in ca. 1407 are still around. We need to test more Westcotts/Westcotes!

One set of results, for Graham Littleton (UK), is pending. Finally, four kits, from Andy Littleton (TN),  James "Jimmy" Littleton (Essex, UK),  John Littleton (KY; orig. UK), and Robert Roland Littleton (CA), have yet to be received by FTDNA. Hey, guys, let's get 'em in!  Jimmy Littleton's ancestors came to the UK from Ireland (Limerick again) and John was born in Cornwall. These should prove extremely interesting. All of them will, of course, be posted as soon as they become available.

Anyway, here are the  raw data as of 10/22/07: