Cope Family DNA

INTRODUCTION

There is currently a group of male Cope descendents that are working on a project to map the DNA of various Cope lines. To find more on how this is done, please visit the site Family Tree DNA.

The project is being ran by Eddie Cope, and the results so far can be found at Cope FamilyTreeDNA Project. There are currently sixteen(16) male Cope's that are in the program, and more are requested. The project is trying to see through DNA testing, if the different Cope lines are connected.

Of the sixteen males that were tested, they are descneded from eleven different Cope men. These men are as follow, with the number of descendents tested, in parentheseis:

 1 Yost Cope-(1)
 2 James Dial Cope- born 1798 in Virginia(1)
 3 Samuel Cope- born c1770 in North Carolina(2)
 4 William Cope- born 1779 in Virginia, settled in Hawkins Co, Tennessee with two
     brothers, James and Andrew.
 5 William Cope- born c1720	 
 6 Wylie Cope- born 1770 in Viringia
 7 Oliver Cope- arrived in Pennsylvaina from England in 1647
 8 Thomas Cope- born c1745 in North Carolina
 9 James Cope- born in 1776 in North Carolina, setteld in Warren Co, Tennessee
10 Jacob Cope- born 1800 in North Carolina
11 Martin Cope- 

RESULTS

DNA results so far have been interesting. For starters, the results show that numbers 2 through 9 are geneticaly descneded from Oliver. We just don't have a paper trail for them.

This also points towards James Cope(1776), my ancestor, of not being a first cousin of William Cope(1779) and Samuel Cope as previuosly thought. There could still be some sort of blood connection, ut it is more distant than has been suggested in the past. We do need a descendent of Andrew Cope, who settled in White County. A test of such an individual would be helpfull. Other lines we need tested would be of Richard Cope, who settled in Sumner County, Tennessee, and Geroge Cope. George came from Tennessee to Missouri.

Also, it should be noted that both test results for James came from the same line, through his son Stephen Payne Cope. Could this have has some sort of impact on the markers being different for some reason?

On further study of James Cope's results. His ethnic origin points to the British Isles. And, his 12 marker test results match perfectly with a dozen other individuals, all with different surnames. This most likely means a common ancestor, but more than likely over 40 generations ago (About a thousand years.) Plese note, that the practice of using surnames wasn't really started until the 11th century in northern Italy. From there it spread throughout Europe. So, it's possible that brothers were given different surnames, as well as complete strangers from differetn villages recieving the same surname. More research is needed, if it can be done at all.

As for the results, numbers 2 through 7 markers match up 12 for 12(12/12), and show direct match to numbers 8 & 9. 10 & 11 are closely matched to 14 & 15, matching 9/12 markers. 13 & 14 match up 7/12 with 10 & 11, and 6/12 with 14 & 15. They match up 5/12 with 2 through 9. Number 1 matches up 6/12 with 2 through 9, and 7/12 with 10 & 11, 6/12 with 14 & 15,and only 4/12 with 12 and 13. Number 16 is the odd one, not having more than 2 matching markers with any of the others.