DNA PROJECT NEWS
Update August 2009Background to the surname study.
Elizabeth Shillabeer and I combined our Taplin and Tuplin/g studies into one, because we were not sure whether these two surnames shared a common origin. I know of at least one family group where the name changed from Tupling to Tapling, so there is reason to suppose that some of the Taplins around might originally have been Tuplins. Additionally there is a major cluster of Tiplings in East Yorkshire so they may well be worth following up; then again, some of my direct ancestors also in East Yorkshire were entered as Toplin and Topling in at least one census. Consequently we decided our study should include variants of the two main forms of the surname, and at some point will include other variants.
In 2007 we decided to embark on a Y DNA project in order to investigate how many separate Taplen-Tupling family groups are around today. This would also help in confirming (or otherwise) the findings of existing family history research, and suggesting the future direction of research. Since September 2007 we have had results from tests undertaken by 22 individuals. Approximately half of these are from Taplins and the others from Tuplins and Tuplings - and has focussed on the origins of families tracing their roots back to two counties - Hampshire for the Taplins and Lincolnshire for the Tuplin/gs.
It appears these two groups are distinct as we now have a cluster of close or identical results for each of them. In the case of the Hampshire Taplins the cluster is based on North Hampshire families, and for the Tuplin/gs on two major groups again based in the north of the historic county of Lincolnshire. This confirms research back to at least the late 1600s. The results have also raised some questions. For example, there are Taplin families in many southern counties in the 19th-20th century, but so far we have not had enough volunteers from these groups to identify whether there are genetically different clusters from the north Hampshire one. Similarly there are Tuplin/g family groups in other counties who on paper have not been traced back to Lincolnshire.
We are hoping more volunteers will come forward to be tested - we do not have an end date in mind for the project. We have a fixed price arrangement of 149$ (US) with a company called DNA Heritage (Opens in new window). On their website you will also find much more detail about what is involved in testing.
