Whipple DNA

Whipple Y-DNA Research Project

In 2008, Whipple researcher Blaine Whipple contacted the Whipple Website to announce that he was helping to start the Whipple Surname Family Tree DNA Project. Blaine was the first member of that project. Blaine stated the objective of the project as follows:

My hope is that it either leads to information that connects the Ipswich Whipples with the Dorchester, Massachusetts-Providence, Rhode Island Whipples or determines there is no relationship.

Blaine's extensive research had established that his own Whipple ancestor had come to Ipswich, Massachusetts, from Bocking, Essex county, England, in 1638. Rhode Island Whipples, on the other hand, descend from the teenage John Whipple who arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts, six years earlier, in 1632, likely from Essex county, England. Teenage John eventually married and had a family, with whom he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1658.

Blaine invited biologically male patrilineal Whipple descendants to participate in Y-chromosome DNA tests by submitting DNA samples to FamilyTree DNA in Houston, Texas. Weldon Whipple (whose father's father's father's father's father's father's father's father's father's father is the Dorchester/Providence John Whipple) immediately joined the project.

Results of the Project

The initial tests showed that Blaine and Weldon were from different Y-DNA haplogroups. More patrilineal male Whipple descendants participated in the test. By the time Blaine passed away on January 3, 2015, it was established that the two groups of Whipples belong to different Y-DNA haplogroups:

  1. All biological male patrilineal descendants of John of Dorchester/Providence were found to belong to haplogroup R-M269 (R1B1b2)
  2. Almost all biological male patrilineal descendants of John and Matthew of Bocking/Ipswich have reported T-M70 (T or T1). Ironically, Blaine reported his own haplogroup as I2b1. (No others have reported I2B1 ... yet.)

Those interested in the details of the Whipple Y-DNA project can visit FamilyTree DNA's Whipple - Y-DNA Classic Chart. Analyses of that chart are beyond the scope of the Whipple Website (now the Whipple One-Name Study).

What's Next?

Although the objective of the original project begun by Blaine Whipple has been achieved, there are still numerous disconnected males with surname Whipple whose names appear on the Disconnected Whipples page.

If you are a male patrilineal descendant of one of those Whipples and have your Y-DNA tested, we are interested in learning about your Y-DNA haplogroup. ... Or perhaps you are a male patrilineal descendant of some other (yet undocumented) disconnected Whipple? If so, we are also interested in your Y-DNA results. Email your results to whipple@one-name.org.

The Whipple Website/One-Name Study currently has no plans for other types of DNA studies. Genealogical DNA research continues to develop rapidly, not only in Y-DNA testing, but in autosomal-DNA (atDNA), mitochondrial-DNA (mtDNA), X-chromosomal (X-DNA) and other testing methodologies.

When (and if) sufficient interest arises, we are potentially interested!


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