Who can qualify?
Only males who are born a Phelps can qualify for a yDNA test. If you are a female, you can act as an proxy for your male Phelps relative and join us in our research. The yDNA test is the only way to verify which Phelps line you belong to.
The Phelps researchers participate in the FTDNA's Phelps yDNA Project. Family Tree DNA is the world leader in DNA testing.
Which yDNA test should I take?
For this particular line, researchers believe y67 is the best starting point, because it will show closer matches 400 years ago. Walter came in the late 1600s, almost 400 years ago. However, y37 marker test is really the very minimum one should order due to high rate of false positives in y12 and y25 markers. Upgrades from one level to the other are orderable.
Directions in getting started:
Join the Phelps yDNA Project and order the yDNA test through it. If you join it first, you'll get a small discount.
You will get an email acknowledging that FTDNA has received your order and an FTDNA account number and password.
There may be sales throughout the year. You can order the DNA tests any time and join the Phelps yDNA Project.
It takes about 2 months for a y67 DNA test to be processed, depending on how busy the lab is. You'll be notified by email when each level test is completed.
In the meantime, please provide your lineage. With your permission, we include your FTDNA kit # in your lineage, but we will not display the living persons (or in the last 100 years, its up to you and testee to decide). This will greatly help build up our proven lineage tree for Walter Phelps of Maryland.
We encourage you to join the two FB groups!