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The Maybury DNA Project Maybury . Mayberry . Maberry . Mabery . Mabrey . Mabry Our project began in 2003 and now has more than 100 participants.
What is the purpose of the project?What have we learned so far?
- to find out if all Mayburys, Mayberrys, Mabrys, etc. have a common ancestor;
- to see if DNA can help us identify major branches of the family;
- to look for answers to questions that usual genealogical research cannot answer.
- We have identified a unique DNA signature for the Maybury family.
The Y chromosome (which only males have) contains a unique "family signature" which is passed down from father to son through many generations. We have identified this unique DNA signature for the Maybury (Mayberry, Mabry, Maberry, etc.) family.We have learned that the "most recent common ancestor" of all Mayburys lived about 400-450 years ago. We now believe that most Mayburys, Mayberrys, etc. (except those described in paragraph 4 below) descend from a "common ancestor". The Y-DNA test makes it possible to calculate about how long ago the "Most Recent Common Ancestor" (MRCA) of our participants lived. While DNA testing alone cannot tell us the name of the common ancestor of all Mayburys -- it does tell us that he lived approximately 400-450 years ago.
An analysis of "Maybury events" (births, marriages and burials) found in the parish registers of 16th century England has convinced us that our most recent common ancestor was, almost certainly, a skilled iron worker named John Maybury, who was born about 1540 and died in 1618 at Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire.
"A paternal event" is a euphemism that points to a family event sometime in the past by which the Maybury DNA signature on the Y chromosome was replaced by the signature of another family. This usually happens when a male child is either adopted into a Maybury family or born out-of-wedlock to a Maybury mother. That son carries with him the DNA signature from his own biological father - which he then passes on to all of his own male descendants. Alternatively a new DNA signature may have occured when another family adopted the Maybury (Mayberry, etc.) surname as its own. If a new DNA signature is brought into the family through adoption, etc., and the family continues to use the Maybury (Mayberry, etc.) name, the new signature becomes, in effect, a new Maybury DNA signature which is then passed on to all male descendants. The family of Frederick Mayberry of Bedford County, Virginia may be an example of such a "new Mayberry DNA signature". This would be true if it turns out that Frederick Mayberry (or perhaps his father) was born out-of-wedlock or adopted into a Mayberry family. On the other hand the same thing would be true if it turns out that Frederick Mayberry was born in Germany and changed his name to Mayberry when he came to America.
Mutations normally occur among some genetic markers. If those mutations occured many generations ago, they may provide "distinguishing markers" to help us identify larger branches of the family. Until very recently we did not see a pattern in these mutations because the changes seemed to be random. However, as the number of DNA samples increased we began to notice identifiable patterns related to particular branches of the family. As the number of our participants increases, we may be able to identify additional markers for other branches of the family.