Project Newsletter #5
12 Dec 2004

Dear Burgess Cousins,

We now have 35 participants in the Burgess DNA project, with test results  from 25 members.  Here's what we've learned so far:

The families of William Burgess of Richmond (later King George) Co., VA, and of William Burgess of Bedford Co., VA, have a common ancestor who probably dates from at least the mid-1600s--but perhaps not much earlier than that.

The families of Edward Burgess of Prince George's Co., MD, and of William Burgess of Montgomery Co., MD, also have a common ancestor.  These two men, both born in the 1730s, may be descended from Charles Burgess, youngest son of Col. William Burgess of Anne Arundel Co., MD; we'll know for certain when the test result from a descendant in the latter family arrives in mid-January.

The families of William Burgess of Surry Co., VA, and of Thomas Burgess of Orange Co., VA, may have a common Burgess ancestor; further testing is being done to validate the possible connection.

The families of Dean Burgess, a possible descendant of Thomas Burgess of Sandwich, MA, and of George Henry Burgess of Lancashire, England, may have a common ancestor; further testing is being done to validate the possible connection.  If the results are correct, this will be the first firm link established between an ancient (pre-1800) American family and a British Burgess line.

Test results from descendants of two of the sons of Keziah Burgess do not match; these lines have separate progenitors.  We're currently testing a representative from the line of her third son to see if he matches either of the others.

The test results from a descendant of James Burgess of Fayette Co., WV, show that this James is not the same person as the James Burgess son of Thomas Burgess out of the William of Bedford Co., VA, line, as had previously been supposed.  Further research is being conducted, but already it appears that the father of this James may be another William Burgess, hitherto unrecorded.

Test results from two descendants of different branches of the Thomas Burgess family of Sandwich, MA, do not match; further testing and research will need to be done in order to determine which result is the "true" result for the Thomas line, and where the break occurred.  Thus far, nothing obvious has shown itself.  Because this family is quite old (almost 400 years), finding the discrepancy may take some time.  We do have a test pending from another possible descendant out of this line living in Canada.

All of the five predicted matches in the family of William Burgess of King George Co., VA, have in fact occurred, as has the one predicted match in the family of Edward Burgess of Prince George's Co., MD.

The remaining families in the project thus far have unique number markers, indicating separate creations of the Burgess name.

I want to thank all of you for agreeing to participate in the project, and for your continuing wise counsel and enthusiastic support.  Mildred Guernsey and Dr. Scott Burgess each donated $100 to the project, enabling us to get a matching grant of $200 from FT DNA during the short window it was available to us.  Thanks also to Bennett Greenspan and all the good people at FT DNA for enabling both our DNA project and the hundreds of others that they've sponsored, and for suggesting the grant program in the first place.

We've made an excellent start this year.  Every test that we receive from this point on just adds additional information to our growing database of numbers.  We'll see more random matches between major Burgess lines, and, alas, a few more predicted matches that fail.  All are helpful in delineating the real connections between Burgess families throughout the world.  We'll find more links between families in North America and Burgesses still living in the British Isles.

My website (www.millefleurs.tv) will be updated later this week with more detailed information on the DNA results we've received thus far.  Please feel free to visit there.  I'm also editing down a portion of my own Burgess genealogy from the line of William Burgess of King George Co., VA, in order to add the first few generations of that family as an adjunct page to the website.

A few of you still have test kits outstanding.  Please send these in.  Remember that we don't get results back from the lab until the materials are submitted by FT DNA.

I wish you all a blessed Christmas and holiday season.  Mary and I plan to spend a quiet two weeks doing more genealogical research and working on our book projects.  When I return to the University on January 3rd, I'll start the process which will ultimately lead to my retirement in September of '05.

All best wishes:

Michael Burgess