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- Find your Sackett ancestors
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- What do the Sackett DNA results tell us?
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About the Sackett DNA project
Compiling family groups from genealogical data
A basic task for the family historian is interpreting event data in order to determine family groups. Sometimes, information is specific and the task easy. On other occasions, information is sketchy, and clever detective work is needed.
Sackett family groups and Sackett lines
The Sackett name is not common, and the concentration of the name in early records in Thanet, Kent, suggests the possibility that all Sacketts descend from a single family of the name, and are thus related. Most Sacketts have been identified to families, and the families in turn have naturally formed into lines, the end of line being reached when the head of line cannot be identified to his parents. This process has resulted in a relatively small number of Sackett lines, still holding out the possibility that the lines are related. With the paper trail becoming exhausted, a Sackett DNA project was started in order to help identify relationships among the various lines.
Simon and John
The two major American lines are those headed by Simon Sackett the colonist and John Sackett of New Haven. According to family tradition these men would have been uncle and nephew. A primary objective of the DNA study was to establish a genetic link between descendants of these two lines, thus confirming a close relationship. Results so far suggest that these men were probably not related, although further tests of a bigger sample of John's descendants may yet prove otherwise.
American and English Sackett link
DNA testing has confirmed the genetic match between descendants of Simon the colonist and all English descendants of Thomas Sackett the elder (Simon's grandfather). As well as confirming that considerable majorities of American and English Sackett descendants are related, the matching test results of a significant number of participants provide a solid benchmark for further comparison.
New Haven and Vermont link
Matching test results between a number of descendants of the so-called Vermont line of Sacketts and a descendant of John Sackett of New Haven have proved that these two lines are related. This has enabled the identification of the parents of Joseph Sackett of Vermont, head of the Vermont line. The identification was suspected from paper records, but the DNA testing provides sufficient additional evidence to be confident of the identification.
DNA tables and charts
Test results of the participants in the Sackett DNA project are displayed in DNA results tables. Several charts, at Thanet line charts and New Haven line charts, show the results superimposed over traditional genealogical charts. The charts thus combine the evidence for relationships from both the paper trail and DNA testing.
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