Speaks Family DNA Project

The Speaks Project at FamilyTreeDNA was established in 2004 by Roberta Estes, our cousin, member of SFA, and an internationally known genetic genealogist. Based on data from the Speaks Project, Roberta has shown that there is a Y-DNA match between descendants of Thomas Speake (the Immigrant) and a man in New Zealand with documented ancestors in Gisburn, Lancashire, UK before 1700 (when it was then part of the West Riding of Yorkshire). Other Lancashire men with the Speake surname living in the Ribble Valley near Gisburn have been tested and also show relatedness through DNA testing. From this evidence, we conclude that Thomas the Immigrant likely was born in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, UK near Gisburn. Roberta has documented this in her blog: The Ancestors are SPEAKing: An 18-Year Y-DNA Study That Led Us Home.

The project has also shown that lineages of descendant lines of Thomas’s sons can be differentiated, because descendants of Thomas’ son Bowling have unique makers not found in descendants of his son John the Innholder. Roberta described this strategy in Chapter 4 of The Speak/e/s Family of Southern Maryland, by showing that the line of Aaron Luckey Speaks of Iredell County, NC most closely matches lines of descendants of Bowling Speake. As additional Speake men test using Big-Y DNA, or upgrade their testing to that level, further markers may be identified to further differentiate lines of descendants from one another.

The strategies that link lines back to a common ancestor often require all the available resources, both genealogical and genetic. The genealogy part of that cannot be ignored—we continue to need the best documentation we can develop from genealogy. Each of the strategies feeds into and supports the other: DNA matches suggest related people whose documents might be relevant to the genealogy, and newly found documents suggest previously unknown relationships suggesting newly found Speak/e/s relatives to test.

Speak/e/s men (18 or older) willing to take a DNA test to advance the Speaks Family Project can contact us by emailing John Payne at jpaynecp@gmail.com, co-administrator of the project. We will consider providing free testing for him (unless his father, son or brother has already tested).

We also welcome contributions to the SFA Speaks Family DNA Project Fund.