You may recall a recent post of mine The DNA Waiting Game Begins where I mentioned that a Babb who was born in Devon, England had contacted me about doing a Y-DNA test.
As a reminder, we already have identified 5 distinct lineages of Babb’s in England; 3 of which came to America and the rest who still reside in England. This is the source of an upcoming Babb Unabridged book, tentatively titled “Made in England”, which will become volume 8 of the series. I plan to discuss all of these lines in detail in the book.
We knew one of 6 things would happen. The candidate would either match to one of the 5 known lineages, or establish a brand new one. We have long hoped to bridge “The Pond” through DNA and finally establish a link between the Babbs of the US and the Babbs of England. I dream that someday I’ll be able to predict which lineage someone belongs to the way I can in the US.
If there is anything I have learned over almost a decade of these tests is that I should expect the unexpected and this was no exception. In the end, the line did not match to any of the 5 known lineages. So, without further delay, let me introduce to you the 6th distinct lineage from the Babb families of England. The Babb family of Hatherleigh, in North Devon, England dates back to Edward Babb who was born in 1675 in this small town.
During this period the town was deeply involved in the Wool Trade and as I work to assign a mascot to every lineage, I found it very fitting that this new one should be called The Shepherds of Hatherleigh.
Hatherleigh lies on the north side of Devon and is separated from Dartmouth by the Dartmoor National Park. More testing candidates are 
always needed because we still look to find matches eventually. In the meantime, please join me in welcoming the newest (and one of the oldest) Babb Families in England, the Shepherd Babb Family of Hatherleigh!
Welcome to our family of Black Sheep.
Dan
Photo Source: http://hatherleigh.net/art.asp (c) http://www.hatherleigh.net
5 responses to “The DNA Sample Says…”
I really found this interesting.do you have anything on Eben Harry Babb, born 1869, in Reynolds Indiana? that is my grandfather.he was married to Henrietta Poteat .Thanks.
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I had some free time today and dug around for you. Eben is the son of Samuel L. Babb and grandson of Henry Mercer Babb. Eben is found on the 1880 Census with his family, but for some reason the family unit isn’t together in the 1870 Census, which is right after Eben was born. The couple claims in 1900 Census that they have been married for 31 years, which I’m not able to verify. As Eben is the oldest son of Samuel, his number in our tree is (1-2-3-1-5-7-5-1). As this is new information to me, you won’t find Eben in the first editions of the Babb Unabridged series. However, father Samuel is located in volume 2 (The Tale of Thomas). I don’t have a copy handy at the moment to look up the page number, but there is a section for Henry Mercer Babb, and Samuel will be located in that. I’ve made an update to the online tree, so you can see the connection at http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/67152098.
Dan
This Shepherd Babb Family #6 hopes, also, to track his link to The Family Of Black Sheep that side of The Big Pond
Where can I get a DNA test done?
We use http://familytreedna.com. Make sure to join the Babb Surname group to receive our group pricing and to allow me to see the results for comparison.