This website is for the descendants of Walter Phelps of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He was baptized 3 November 1639 in Westbury, Wiltshire, England to Walter & Rebecca (?) Phelps. He immigrated to Maryland with his wife Elizabeth (Benson) Phelps and mother Rebecca in 1680 and settled in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. His first child, Walter II, was born 17 June 1680 sometime after their arrival in Maryland. He married Elizabeth Benson before 1681 and had at least 8 known children: Walter, William, John, George, Elizabeth, Benjamin. Joseph & Charles.
Many descendants of Walter remained in Maryland for decades while others moved "West" to the area between West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky after the Revolutionary War. Burgess Phelps, Sr. (great grandson of Walter Phelps the immigrant) went to Rowan Co. (now Lincoln Co.), North Carolina briefly (~20 years or more, 1778-1798) and started a family. He then moved them to Logan Co., Kentucky where they settled there and beyond. This yDNA line should not to be confused with the line of Thomas Felps b. abt 1759 Baltimore Co, Md, whose descendants were in Rowan Co., NC. See their line at this page . Today, the descendants are spread all over the United States.
Several male descendants of Walter Phelps took a yDNA test and participated in the Phelps yDNA project at Family Tree DNA, aka FTDNA.
The yDNA testing has been invaluable in sorting out the Phelps lines, especially between three Phelps lines: William Phelps of Windsor, CT, John Phelps, d. 1747, Goochland Co., VA and Walter Phelps of Anne Arundel Co., MD. The yDNA tests serve as our basis for building up our Phelps tree going back to Walter Phelps of Maryland.
If you are interested in participating in the yDNA test, please click here to learn more about it.
Please join us on Facebook!
Descendants of Walter Phelps of Maryland
Ron Phelps - owner of this website.
Please email if you have any questions:
Ron Phelps - ronph2 at gmail dot com
Marilyn Brien - brienrm at gmail dot com, she's the coordinator for the Descendants of Walter Phelps Google Group only. Email her to join.