Gary Rea of Ok. City, Ok., started a Rea Surname DNA Project through Family Tree DNA, Inc., and it has now grown to over 70 participants with numerous known lines and surname spelling variations represented. Here is the link to that project:
http://garyr50.tripod.com/Rea_Surname_DNA_Project.htmI joined the project almost 5 years ago. I am a g-g-grandson of Pleasant Vincent Uriah (and/or Eli, depending on the source) Jackson Harris Glen Rhea, born 1821, of Lincoln County TN and later of Hood County, TX. So far, though Twila Gill Wright wrote in her book, Oxbows and Calico's, that he is thought to have been the illegitimate son of a John Rhea, born 1776, though raised in his household by he and his wife along with their children, no one yet has come up with proof of this.
Meanwhile, there is another Pleasant Vincent Rhea, born about 1803, who moved to Arkansas with his own family or who acquired a family once he moved there, who my niece Denise Fischer says was actually their son Pleasant Vincent, and not our own P.V. etc. Rhea.
This causes me to wonder, both having the same first two names, if perhaps our Pleasant Vincent etc. Rhea might not in fact have been the illegitimate son of Pleasant Vincent Rhea rather than of his father, John Rhea, but never married the mother, and his own father and mother then took their grandson into their home and raised him themselves.
I would very much like to urge a Rhea male descendant of the Arkansas Pleasant Vincent Rhea to join in Gary's DNA Project, selfishly in order that I can compare my own test results with his, but also simply because we can all learn a lot by getting as many men from as many lines as possible to join in this testing project.
It can only be the men, males of an unbroken male line of Rhea's, as that is simply how the testing works. Men have their Y chromosome DNA tested, which is passed from father to son, while women can have their mtDNA (mitiochondrial DNA) tested, which is passed from mother to daughter. Thus, for surname projects, surnames likewise being traditionally passed through the males, the Y Chromosome DNA of the men is tested for comparisons.
It is a simple procedure. Once you have joined the project, making arrangements for payment to Family Tree DNA, which does the testing, a test kit is mailed to you containing two plastic scrapers similar to tooth brushes, which you will then scrape the insides of your cheeks with. You place them in the return packet, put the proper postage on it, drop them in the mail, and await the results from Family Tree.
It has been profoundly rewarding to me through dispelling immediately the speculation that we were descended from the Campbell Rhea's, and now almost 5 years later, seems finally to getting us past P.V. etc. Rhea through my perfect 25 marker match with a Ray who has recently joined the project but whose family name used to be spelled Rea, and a 24 of 25 marker match with another Rea whose ancestry goes back to the son of a John Ray or Rhea of Ireland, born about 1700, who sent his 5 eldest sons to America where at least one of them changed the spelling to Rhea.
I have a couple of other close matches with a two different Rea's as well.
It is an excellent tool for supplementing and aiding our genealogical research, as well as an excellent legacy to pass on to your family. I urge all the men to consider it, Rhea's or not. Men of other surnames can go to Family Tree DNA to see if there is a surname project already in progress for their own family name, and in looking consider that there may be one in a variant spelling, even as ours is.
Here is the link for Family Tree.
http://www.familytreedna.com/default.aspxThe testing is cheaper if done through a Surname Project than if you just do it on your own, so that is another good reason for joining a project.
Again, I'm asking and urging any Rhea male descendants of the Arkansas Pleasant Vincent Rhea to join the Rea Surname DNA Project, linked earlier in this post. And please let me know if you do. My own kit # there is 11850, for identification purposes. Here is my email address, which any of you are welcome to use if you should want to talk about this or seek additional information. Please put something in the subject line in order to catch my attention as to what it is about, as I tend to delete anything that doesn't look like I want to know anything about it, and/or don't recognize the sender.
hrhea@maxxconnect.netHenry Rhea