KEEP FAMILY GENEALOGY
DNA PROJECT

The Keep Family
Surnames
DNA Testing Explained
Early Colonial History
To Participate
Contacts and
Keep Family Links
English Keeps,
1600s
Keep Trivia
Keep DNA Project
Progress Report
EARLY DNA TESTING RESULTS
American - English Connection Indicated
While there is a great deal of testing to be done by male participants with the last name Keep, the Keep Family DNA Project has in its early stages discovered John Keep of Longmeadow's (d. 1676) ancestral connection to a Keep family in England.  It  is evident  now that his family lived in England and that he did not change his name upon arrival in this country, ending speculation about that.  This connection had been sought for over 300 years without success, but DNA science and the Keep Family DNA Project has accomplished it very quickly.  Much more American, British, and worldwide testing must be done in order to establish specific family lines.

 

 

 

Walter KEP

born about 1230

Astwood,  Buckinghamshire

 

 

John KEP

born about 1260

Astwood

 

 

John KEP

born about 1290

Astwood

 

 

John KEEP

born about 1320

Astwood

 

 

John KEEP

born about 1350

Astwood

 

 

John KEEP

born about 1375

Bozeat, Northamptonshire

 

 

Thomas KEPE

born about 1400

Bozeat

 

 

William KEPE

born about 1425

Bozeat

 

 

William KEPE

born about 1450

Bozeat

 

 

 

 

William KEPE

born about 1480

Ecton, Northamptonshire

 

 

William KEPE

born about 1515

 

 

Francis KEEP

born about 1555

 

 

William KEEP

born about 1585

DNA testing has shown that the English ancestor of  John Keep of Longmeadow is in the family line of John L. Keep of England, shown  à

à  in the right-hand column. More testing is needed to determine exactly which Keep in John L. Keep's line is that common ancestor. à

 

Thomas KEEP

born 1610

John KEEP of Longmeadow

DNA link

Killed by Indians on 26 Mar 1676

John KEEP of Longmeadow

DNA link

Killed by Indians on 26 Mar 1676

John KEEP

born 1651

Wellingborough

Samuel KEEP

born 1670

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Samuel KEEP

born 1670

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Thomas KEEP

born 1682

Samuel KEEP

born 1700

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

 Samuel KEEP

born 1700

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Thomas KEEP

born 1724

Samuel KEEP

Born 1739

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

 Samuel KEEP

born 1739

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Richard KEEP

born 1765

Transported to Botany Bay in 1807.

Samuel KEEP

born 1774

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

 Heber KEEP

born  1776

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Joseph KEEP

born 1794

Wootton

Nathan Cooley KEEP

born 1800

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Henry Augustus KEEP

born 1811

Longmeadow, Massachusetts

 

 

Joseph KEEP

born 1821

John Haskell KEEP

born 1836

Boston, Massachusetts

 Charles Davis KEEP

born 1857

Alton, Illinois

Mark KEEP

born 1856

Cardington, Bedfordshire

John Haskell KEEP

Born 1869

Brooklyn, New York

 Charles Russell KEEP

born 1896

Hartford, Connecticut

Joseph Henry KEEP

born 1879

St Albans, Hertfordshire

Donald Bruce KEEP

Born 1900

Wells, New York

Charles Russell KEEP

born 1929

New York, New York

 

Arthur Joseph KEEP

born 1921

Higham Ferrers

 

Donald Bruce KEEP

Born 1927

Syracuse, New York

 

 Marcus Floyd KEEP

born 1958

New York, New York

 

 

John Lister KEEP

born 1949

Finedon Northamptonshire

 

ANCESTRAL LINES OF JOHN KEEP OF LONGMEADOW, MASSACHUSETTS,
AND THE RELATED ENGLISH FAMILY LINE OF WALTER KEP OF ENGLAND
 
Below are three family lines.  One is the Walter Kep/John Lister Keep line beginning in 1230 in England.  The other two are the John Keep of Longmeadow/Marcus Floyd Keep/Donald Bruce Keep lines, beginning in the 1660s in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
 
The DNA results above show that the ancestor of John Keep of Longmeadow is in the line of Walter Kep/John Lister Keep of England.
 
                                               READ THIS CHART FROM THE BOTTOM UP
 
                                                                          

If you now compare the results of Marcus Keep to the results of John L. Keep, who lives in England,  you can see the 67 pairs of marker numbers are identical except for three (in red), which are only one number off.  This extraordinary early result indicates that the Longmeadow John Keep's ancestor exists in John’s English ancestral line.  (See that line below.)  By achieving an identical match to another participant, the probability of sharing a common ancestry exists.  The greater the number of matches in the number of markers tested the degree of probability increases. Consideration must also be given to variants in respect of markers that may appear in the test results, which may be caused by change or mutation of the Y- chromosome.  A factor of one would still indicate a common ancestry, but any higher variation would suggest that there is no link. Unfortunately these early test results did not show the particular family line of John Keep of Longmeadow that leads to that common ancestor, nor which particular ancestor of John L. Keep it is.  Much more DNA testing of participants is necessary.

 

The next person to participate in the project was Peter Ronald Keep, who relocated to America from England during the 1960s. We know that Peter was born in 1935 at Hendon, England, and is descended from Thomas Keep of Hammersmith who married Amelia Sarah Reynolds on 28 September 1872. Only two of Peter’s twelve markers matched Marcus’ results, and therefore we do not share a common ancestry. The importance of Peter’s test is that it clearly demonstrates that a shared family name does not confer a shared lineage or a genetic link.  As more testing is done over time by this project, it is hoped that Peter and other Keeps will discover their own family's genetic links.

 

The latest and most significant result are those of Donald Bruce Keep, who like Marcus can trace an unbroken line back to John Keep of  Longmeadow. Out of the 25 markers tested, 24 match Marcus’ results, but one varies by the factor of one. The same applies to John L. Keep’s tests, which puts a different perspective on the interpretation of Marcus and John’s tests. With the science still in its infancy, Donald’s result poses the question of the rate and frequency of variants in markers caused by change or mutation of the Y- chromosome. The more participants we attract to the project the greater our understanding and interpretation of the results and variants will become.

 

Much has been published and broadcast about the pitfalls of DNA Y-chromosome research as a tool in genealogy, but these pitfalls centre around the use of the science to determine our deep ancestry or Haplogroups, i.e. who our ancestors were over 10,000 years ago.  Whilst this is an interesting aside, it cannot detract from the tried and tested reliability of the marker comparisons that are being used here.

 

Many other projects provide detailed commentary about the tests and in depth explanations of the results, but we have elected to keep this section simple.  If you wish to find out more, we would recommend that you do so.  We are not professing to be experts in this field, and until we started this project had a very little knowledge of what it entailed.  However, in a relatively short period of time we have achieved some exceptional results, far beyond our original expectations and as such created a sound platform on which to advance the project to meet our set aims and objectives, namely to establish the parentage of John Keep of Longmeadow, and to try to establish links to others who share our common surname, or variations on it.

 

 

 

Marcus Keep

John L Keep

Charles Russell Keep, Jr.

Peter Ronald Keep

Donald Bruce Keep

Locus

DYS#

Alleles

Alleles

Alleles

Alleles

Alleles

1

393

14

14

14

13

13

2

390

22

22

22

25

22

3

19

15

15

15

17

15

4

391

10

10

10

11

10

5

385a

13

13

13

11

13

6

385b

14

14

14

14

14

7

426

11

11

11

12

11

8