The Sole Society, a Family History Society researching Sole, Saul, Sewell, Solley and similar names

Where's George?

 

An update on Y-DNA Testing for Sole/Soule

with Implications for Bedfordshire Research

 By Louise W Throop

 

This article was originally published in the December 2006 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society

 

The Soule/Sole Y-DNA Project now has 19 men who have been tested and found essentially the same. 

 

There is very little variability in the results, with minor variations in 6 of the tests.   The modern spellings of the surname represented by these 19 men include:  Soule, Soules, Soles, Soule', Sowl, Sowle, and Sowles.  All 19 men are descended from a common male ancestor, George Soule of the Mayflower in 1620. The genetic family, or haplogroup, for this group of men is "I," one of the more common haplogroups found in Great Britain.  Because there is little Y-DNA variability in the George Soule descendancy, the Y-DNA25 test is useful, even though the testing company, FamilyTreeDNA, is currently recommending the Y-DNA37 test.

 

Three Sole men with known English lineages have been tested.  All three belong to different haplogroups. The English test results are limited by small numbers because the Y-DNA testing works by matching two or more test results.  Each of the three English-lineage men needs a relative to be tested in order to confirm the test results.  Please help find these relatives!!  It would glorious if we can find a matching man for any of these first three Sole men with ancestral roots in England!!

 

Curiously, a distant match has been found for the group of George Soule descendants and one Throop man (yes! my son!!).   The match indicates a very distant common male ancestor or all of these men....probably about 4,000 years ago!!  Since the Throop lineage may derive from the area of Bedfordshire, it would be wonderful to find men with the Sole or Throope surnames who currently live in or have ancestral roots in Bedfordshire.  Please help find such men!!

 

To join the Y-DNA Project, contact:  FamilyTreeDNA, 1919 North Loop West Suite 110, Houston, Texas, 77008 USA, phone: (713) 868-1438, or visit www.familytreedna.com  [put Soule or Sole in the query box].

 

If you, or someone you know, are interested in joining this project, please email me, Louise Throop, lwthroop@aol.com  with your name and address.   If you bear the Sole surname by any spelling, and are a man of retirement age (born before 1941), the test is essentially free for you.  The kit will come to you and all you have to do is to follow the simple instructions and return the kit by overseas mail.   Thus all you pay is the return postage.   The test results are confidential and the lab does not even know your name.   Group test results are reported, not individual results, and your name and address are not revealed to the public by the Y-DNA Project Administrator (me!).

 

The current pricing at FamilyTreeDNA is $99 for the Y-DNA12 test, $148 for the Y-DNA25 test, and $169 for the Y-DNA37 test (plus postage of about $4).  These are group rates when going through the website to order the test kit [put Soule or Sole into the query box to get the group rates].  The pricing for these tests has been lowered by FTDNA in the past year.   Several kits can be ordered to be sent to one address, useful if you are planning a family reunion or a research trip (to Bedfordshire!).    Payment does not have to occur until shortly before the kit gets forwarded by FTDNA to their lab.