The Keep Family

Welcome to The Keep Family Website. If you are researching the Keep, Kep, Kepe, or Keepe families, this website is dedicated to you and is intended to help you find information about your ancestry. By navigating through the site, useful and interesting historical background will be found to assist genealogists as well as anyone interested in these surnames.

The site is intended to be an aid for all Keeps around the world regardless of relationship and ancestral line. It is not an association requiring membership, and it can be of use for all with the surname Keep and its variations.

Aims of the Project

~~A Meeting Place for All Keeps. This website will serve as a meeting place for all Keep family members. Special pages offer the opportunity to post inquiries and to share family histories as well as notable events in those histories. The participation of all Keeps around the world is very much invited. Keep family members and others may browse freely among the many pages of family data and family history.

~~An Aid to Keeps Who Are Searching. The Keep DNA Project has been successful in discovering Keep family connections not previously known to exist. Those who wish to begin or further their knowledge of their ancestral lines, or to discover related family members with similar aims, may find this Project helpful if not essential.

~~The Keep DNA Project. In order to fulfill the aims of this project, it was accepted that an alternative would be needed to the traditional paper-trail methods which have often failed genealogists. The Y-chromosome DNA of males with the surname Keep (and its variants) is being traced to establish genetic links of Keep family members. This is the first attempt to be made to discover the roots, relationships, and ancestry of all Keeps through DNA testing and research. Testing is carried out by Family Tree DNA, in partnership with Arizona Research labs at the University of Arizona. The Family Tree DNA laboratory is used by the National Geographic Society and IBM's Genographic Project. Testing is done only for genealogical purposes and results are kept completely private.

~~North American Keeps. Those Keeps who are seeking information about their ancestry, wherever situated, or who are interested in sharing their histories, are invited to read the information on this site, perhaps with an eye toward participation in the Project. Please direct any inquiries to the North American contact, Bob Warner, whose information is on the Contacts Page.

~~United Kingdom Keeps. Unlike American Keeps, for whom there are published genealogies, there appears to be a distinct void in such material about British Keep families, making it difficult for those interested in searching for and enlarging upon their family histories. Not only would participation in the Project by U. K. Keeps be very helpful, but the sharing of Keep family lines would be very much appreciated. Please direct inquiries for the U. K. and other areas outside North America and Australia to John Keep, the contact person for that part of the world. His information is on the Contacts Page.

~~Australian Keep Families. An effort is being made to find ancestral connections between Keeps in Australia and those in Great Britain, America, and other parts of the world. The participation of Keeps from Australia would be very helpful. The sharing of genealogical records would also be very much appreciated. Those interested should contact Paul Keep, whose information is on the Contacts Page.

Current Areas of Investigation and Interest:

~~The Continuing Search for the Ancestral Lines of John Keep of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, killed by Indians 1676. DNA testing has established a link from John Keep to Walter Kep, born about 1230 at Astwood, Buckinghamshire, England, and his line, which is being called the East Midland Keeps. John Keep's roots had been a mystery unsolved by genealogists for over 300 years but a link was discovered in 6 months by DNA testing. The direct line to Walter remains to be determined, which can only be achieved by more United Kingdom and North American participants. If you wish to participate, or are interested in sharing your family's history in relation to John Keep of Longmeadow, or if you are a North American Keep with no known connection to John Keep but wish to discover your place in the Keep family, please contact Bob Warner, whose information is on the Contacts Page.

For Keeps interested in ancestral lines leading back to the East Midlands (Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire) and Birmingham, contact John Keep, whose information is on the Contacts Page.

~~Recent Findings: The Berkshire, Hampshire, and Oxfordshire Keeps. Through DNA testing, separate family lines of Keeps have been discovered, rooted in the southern English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, and Oxfordshire. Keeps, no matter where situated, who are interested in helping to pursue these lines are invited to contact David Keep, whose information is on the Contacts Page.

How You Can Help

The participation and assistance of a considerable number of people connected to the Keep family (and variants of that name) to take part in the project is essential for success. The organizers of this website project have no financial interest in testing, have no income on this websitge, and are Keep family volunteers.

In addition, help is needed in the contribution of family history information in order to fill the voids that now exist in our Keep family lines.

Please read the historical and technical information, mostly relatively simple, on the following pages. Links to other family associations with excellent in-depth information on the subject of DNA are provided. Please see the Contacts Page for correspondence addresses.

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Because there is a suggestion that the Keep Family may have originated in Saxony in the distant past, the following paragraph in German is to assist any potential family members from that region to translate the web-pages into German.

DNA-tests haben ergeben, dass die KEEP-Familie ihre Wurzeln in Sachsen hat. Sollten Sie annehmen, dass Sie in irgend einer Weise mit der KEEP-Familie verwandt sind, so können Sie mehr über unser Projekt mit Hilfe des Google Übersetzers erhalten http://translate.google.com/translate_t , um diese sowie auth andere Webseiten zu übersetzen. Kopieren Sie einfach die zu übersetzende Seite in die Webadresse, wählen Sie “übersetzen” und dann “vom Englischen ins Deutsche”. Wir freuen uns sehr von Ihnen zu hören.

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The Keep Family DNA Project:

Marcus F. Keep, MD

John Keep

Robert S. Warner

Paul E. Keep

David Keep

See the Contacts page.

Email Bob Warner, webmaster, for comments and suggestions about the website.

NEW Nigel Keep of Berkshire on the British and Irish Keep Pages