The DENNISON Patrilineage 3 DNA Project
DENNISON DNA Patrilineage 3
DENNISON Patrilineage 3 has been credibly traced back to 17th century Yorkshire (West Riding)—to the western suburbs of the present large industrial city of Leeds. Although this northwesterly area of England isn’t that far from the Scottish lowlands, and is connected to the western Scottish port of Glasgow by sea, Patrilineage 3 is wholly unrelated to the large DENNISON Patrilineage 1, which stems from Scotland and derives from the old Scottish surname “Danzielstoun”, which evolved into “Denniston” by the 17th century or so.
As I have noted on the DENNISON Surname page, in the section “DENNISONs: Surname Roots & Family Branches”, I have long been expecting DENNISONs to turn up with deep Yorkshire roots, both because of what the experts on the history of British surnames have to say, and because surname distribution maps based on the 1881 UKCensus predict it. In fact this surname distribution map for English DENNISONs, adjusted for county population density, strongly suggests that the largest patrilineage cluster originated in the county of Westmorland, spreading out from there to old Cumberland County on the north, and Yorkshire to the south. Westmorland (since folded into the modern county of Cumbria) with a current population of only about 65,000, is a rural hilly area, good primarily for pasturage, and given that early Leeds was an important center for woolen and other cloth manufacture, perhaps the earliest DENNISONs were Westmorland County shepherds.
Patrilineage 3 Project Members
There are just two DENNISON members of Patrilineage3 at present, but they have DNA matches to two others of the surnames DIXON, and WILKINSON. Hopefully, these two will become members of this project at some point so that their DNA results and pedigrees can be posted, and so that all of these patrilineage cousins can be brought together to compare notes, and collaborate on their research. In the meantime, I have included these two haplotypes in the 37-marker Genetic Distance Matrix chart. In my compilation of records for Jonathan DENNISONs in the parish records of Yorkshire (West Riding) I noticed both of these surnames in passing.
DENNISON member Peter-17’s earliest known ancestor, Robert Denison born 1816 in Guiseley, Yorkshire in the north of England, and his ancestors migrated from there to Down Under, early in the 20th century. This Yorkshire line appears to be quite ancient, extending back in Yorkshire at least as far as the 16th century, although only the most solid part of Peter’s ancestry, back to about 1816, has been posted.
Mike-31 is also an Aussie, with roots deep in the parishes adjacent to Leeds on the east. His people go back, first, to County Kent in England, and then to Tong Parish, Yorkshire. As his pedigree shows, his ancestors have been credibly traced all the way back to another Robert DENNISON whose son Jonathan Denison was baptized in Tong in 1727/8. Tong had long been a chapelry of the ancient parish of Birstall (adjacent to Leeds on the SE), and it was made a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1720. Since the parish records of Birstall, and Tong’s church, St James, go all the way back to the 1550s, it may be possible to trace them farther back still, or otherwise there are several other parishes in the Leeds area where DENNISONs are found in the 1700s, and it’s likely that some of some of these families are related.
The fact that the DNA tests establish that these four are cousins, even though they have three different surnames among them, means that at least two of these surname lines has experienced an NPE (Non-Paternity Event) somewhere in their ancestral lines. That is, two of these surnames must have branched off the main tree of the deepest-rooted surname of the three. It appears at the moment that the deepest-rooted surname is DENNISON, however, since one of our DENNISON members, Mike-31, is able to trace his line back as far as the 17th century in Yorkshire. It’s always possible that further research on the DIXON or WILKINSON lines might go even further back, and that one of these was the original surname. The fact that (as the GD chart shows), these two others are considerably more distantly related keeps this possibility in play. Otherwise, we might suspect, that since both Mike-31 and the DIXON descendant trace their ancestry back to Kent, that the DIXON detour occurred in Kent as an offshoot from Mike's line. With GDs of 4 and 5, most probably the connections between these three go back to Yorkshire. Pushing the DENNISON line even further back, with the aid of the parish records, would make it that much more likely that DENNISON was the original surname, adopted by the patriarch of all.
DENNISON Patrilineage 3 Descendancies
The following ancestral descendancies are based on the research of patrilineage members. Although there may be areas of weakness in the posted lineages below, due both to less than exhaustive research, and to inherently sketchy records, a significant and ongoing effort is being made to ensure that what is posted here in abbreviated form represents the best current thinking on these trees of descent.
Nothing should be inferred from the absence of specific dates, or of cited evidence. In most cases, full dates have been abbreviated to year dates, and this web-publishing format is unsuited to the presentation of evidence and argument. In many or most cases, evidential material, or more complete descendancies, are available via source links in the headnotes below, or directly from the listed researchers, as well as from the more general sources listed as links under “Other Patrilineage 1 Resources&Evidence”, above, in the left navigation panel.
Each descendancy begins with the earliest known male ancestor of a particular sublineage and continues down to the tested male descendant. Since this DNA patrilineage project is focused on tested or testable males surnamed DENNISON, these descendancy trees have generally been pruned not only of daughters, but also of most male lines that are known to have gone extinct or “daughtered out”, though in some instances all the sons, or even complete reconstructed families including daughters, will be included because of their broad-based genealogical interest; in such cases males (or their wives, if given) known or presumed to have no sons, or no male descendants with their surname, will be flagged as appropriate with: “no (known) issue” (NIssue or NKIssue),“no (known) sons” (NSons or NKSons), or “no (known) surviving patrilineal descendants” (NSPD or NKSPD). All of these terms and abbreviations mean that this is a patrilineal dead end.
The information provided for each male DENNISON should be sufficient in most cases to uniquely identify him in the USCensus and other readily available sources. These data comprise (insofar as is known): date and place of birth, date and place of death, the name(s) of his wife (or wives) and the date and place of marriage.
Places are abbreviated to the most important jurisdictional place where records are to be found). For most states/colonies these are counties; for New England, towns.
Indefinite dates are always qualified as either approximate (“abt”, “bef”, “aft”, or “by”) or merely guesstimated (“say”). Approximated dates imply supporting evidence which merely fails of complete accuracy, while “say” dates are guesstimates based on typical patterns of the time, place, and social group.
The yDNA-tested male descendants are flagged below with their Project #s and the “handle” of the Principal Researcher, e.g. Julie-08).
Inferences about the placement of the distinctive yDNA mutations of project members have been interwoven with their descendancies, below, in red text; please note, however, the careful qualifications in these DNA notes where they appear. Most inferences drawn from DNA evidence are probabilistic in nature and one needs to keep an open mind about alternative interpretations, just as one does with the genealogy itself.
Doubtful ancestral links or children are outlined in yellow, e.g. |.
PLACE NAME ABBREVIATIONS:
“AUS” = Australia; “ENG” = England;
“KENT” = County Kent, England; “YORW” = Yorkshire (West Riding), England
invisible writing
B-Robert Denison of Guiseley/Yeadon, Yorkshire (West Riding), ENG, born 1816
Sources: Peter Denison, and John Robb.
See this partial compilation of UKCensus records for Peter’s ancestors.
C-Robert Denison (1816 Guiseley YORW - bef 3Apr1881)
---m1. abt 1840 Nancy [PRESTON?]
|--B-Thomas H. (abt 1846 Yeadon YORW -)
|--B-Benjamin (abt 1848 Yeadon YORW -)
|--B-John P. (abt 1850 Yeadon YORW -)
|--B-Arthur (abt 1853 Yeadon YORW - bef 31Mar1901)
| ---m. say 1875 Harriet [BEANLAND]
| |--A-James William (abt 1877 Saltaire, Bradford YORW)
| | ---m1. abt 1902 Florence Mary SWEET, in North Bierley, Bradford(city) YORW
| | |--1-Arthur (abt 1907 Saltaire, Bradford YORW - Adelaide, SouthAustralia, AUS)
| | |--1-George (1908 Burnley, Whalley LANC - 1983 Adelaide, SouthAustralia, AUS)
| | | ---m. 20Jul1935 Ivy HUGHES, in Leeds YORW
| | | |--2-Roland (1936 Keighley YORW -)
| | | |--2-Carl (1943 Keighley YORW -)
| | | | |--3-Peter Michael Denison *** Peter-17 *** Mutations DYS449+, CDYa+
| | ---m2. abt 1910 Emma _?_
|--B-Alexander (abt 1856 Yeadon YORW -)
---m2. say 1865 Hannah PULLAN
invisible writing
invisible writing
G-Robert Dinison of Birstall/Tong, Yorkshire (West Riding), ENG, born say 1688
Sources: Mike Denison, and John Robb.
See this partial compilation of UKCensus records for Mike’s ancestors.
All the baptisms, marriages, and burials for Tong Parish pertain to its church, Tong St James.
G-Robert Dinison (say 1688 - bur 1762 Tong, YORW)
---m. 2Feb1710 Love BROOKE, at Tong, YORW
|--F-Jonathan Denison (bapt 1727[/8] Tong, YORW - buried 1802 Tong, YORW)
| ---m. 22Oct1749 Anne NAYLOR [“Naylour”], at Tong, YORW
| |--E-Robert Denison (bapt 1752 Tong, YORW -)
| |--E-Jonathan Denison (bapt 1754 Tong, YORW -)
| |--E-Thomas Denison (bapt 1759 Tong, YORW -)
| |--E-James Denison (bapt 1761 Tong, YORW - 1826, buried Tong YORW)
| | ---m. 1787 Susannah BROADBENT, at Batley, YORW
| | |--D-John Dennison (1797; bapt Tong, YORW - 1868 Bradford, YORW; buried at Tong)
| | | ---m. 1824 Sarah Ann WEBSTER, at Birstall StPeter, YORW
| | | |--C-William Dennison (1832 Tong, YORW - 1897 Gillingham, KENT)
| | | | ---m. 1852 Sarah Ann NEWTON, at Birstall StPeter, YORW
| | | | |--B-William Webster Denison (1861 Charlton, KENT - 1921 Gillingham, KENT)
| | | | | --- m. 1882 Eleanor WATSON, in Gillingham, KENT
| | | | | |--A-John James Denison (1897 Gillingham, KENT - 1969 Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire)
| | | | | | ---m. 1920 Emily Eliza TUPPER, in Medway, KENT
| | | | | | |--1-Eric Sidney Denison (1924 MiltonRegis, KENT - 1996 Gawler, SouthAustralia, AUS)
| | | | | | | |--2-Michael John Denison *** Mike-31 *** No mutations
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This project is in no way affiliated with the DNA testing company, Family Tree DNA, or any of its surname projects, even though many of the members of this independent patrilineage project may also be members of the FTDNA DENNISON Surname Project. However, this patrilineage project is affiliated with the independent DENNISON Surname Patrilineages Association (DenSPA), whose umbrella page includes material and evidence pertaining to the surname as a whole, and to its bearers of various DENNISON patrilinages.
Navigating from here
The menu buttons at top right take you to other pages on this site, while the nav panel above targets other points on this page, or brings up other resources (papers I’ve written, and the like). If you find yourself lost, the browser BACK button will take you back to where you were (some people also have a convenient BACK button on their mouse, right under their thumb). Or hitting the HOME key of your keyboard will take you back to the top of this page where you are now.
Some Key Terms: haplotype, haplogroup, patrilineage, RPH.
DENNISON Patrilineage 3 Directory of Researchers
Active researchers of this DENNISON patrilineage are shown below. Those with highlighted names may be e-mailed by clicking on their names, and their posted descendancies may be viewed by clicking on their highlighted Patrilineage Project#s. Satellite members of the project are listed immediately after the principal researcher for the sublineage they are interested in, and their names are preceded by a dash. Where the person tested is not also the principal researcher, the former’s name appears under the latter’s, in parentheses.
| Proj# | “Handle” | Principal Genealogist
(Test Subject) |
yDNA Test Panels |
| D-31 | Mike | Michael John Denison | 37 |
| D-17 | Peter | Peter Michael Denison | 37 |
The Deep Lineage of Haplogroup R-M269+
A man’s yDNA may be classified according to a deeper, broader, ancestral schema by testing ySNPs instead of ySTR markers. These ySNPs are unique point mutations to the yChromosome that occur so much less frequently than ySTR mutations that they are of no use in sorting people into patrilineages, but by the same token they are ideal for sorting patrilineages into the various haplogroups and subclades of the broad human population. And by correlating the haplogroup subclades of both modern descendants and of their ancient ancestors (by testing their remains) with geographic population flows, and with archaeological evidence signifying cultural groupings, the whole broad history of homo sapiens is gradually being reconstructed.
Haplogroup R1b in Europe, & Britain, and Subclade R-M269+
R1b is the most common haplogroup in western Europe, and it is overwhelmingly prevalent in the British Isles, as shown by this distribution and concentrations of R1b, and farther down the same page is a chart of estimates for the age of each of it’s principal SNP branch points. Most Brits belong to the broad haplogroup subclade R-M269 (defined by ySNP mutation M269) and members of Patrilineage 3 are part of this group.
DENNISON Patrilineage 3 yDNA Haplotypes Compared
These charts provide some idea of the closeness of relationship between each pair of test subjects of this patrilineage. The cell at the intersection of each column/row pair shows either the GD (Genetic Distance) between the pair (basically, the number of mutations), or the estimated TMRCA—the Time in years back to the Most Recent Common Ancestor of the pair (not the MRCA of the whole patrilineage). For an extended discussion of the application of these concepts, click here.
While the GD is exact, there is no obvious way to tell how the mutations divide between the two subjects, because the haplotype of their common ancestor, from whom they have mutated, is unknown. However, I have developed a procedure using the GD chart for inferring the haplotype of the common ancestor, which I call the Root Prototype Haplotype (RPH), and I use this as a basis for marking mutations in the yDNA Haplotypes chart, following. The FTDNA commentary says that relationships are only possible where the GD between two subjects is less than 6, but this is a mistake. A GD of 6 from the common ancestor would push that ancestor back before the origin of most surnames, but because GD is the sum of the mutations down each of two lines of descent from the founder, there might be no more than 3 mutations to each haplotype which is well within the relationship guidelines. In fact, a GD of up to 10 between two project haplotypes is conceivable, as long as they bear a common surname.
TMRCA provides at best a very loose estimate of the time back to the common ancestor of two patrilineal descendants, so I have restricted the following set of estimates for paired members of this project just to the members who have tested out to 67 markers, and since neither of the two DENNISON members have yet tested to 67 markers, I have omitted the TMRCA chart altogether.
37-Marker Haplotype Comparison Matrix (low numbers are closest)
The number in each cell is the number of divergent mutations
between each pair of haplotypes.
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What FTDNA has to say about Genetic Distance for 37-marker comparisons
DENNISON Patrilineage 3 yDNA Haplotypes
The chart below shows the haplotypes for each tested project member of this patrilineage. I’ve decapitated most of the marker names (truncating “DYS393” to just “393”) to improve readability. The colored markers mutate slower or faster than the norm. Thus, [DYS]439 is fast, [DYS]458 is faster, and CDYa&b are blazing, while [DYS]393 is slow. Shared mutations to slow markers are the most valuable as they are almost sure to have been inherited from a common ancestor, whereas shared mutations to fast markers may have occurred independently in two or more ancestral lines.
| Haplotype Identifiers | FTDNA 37-Marker Panel | FTDNA Markers 38-67 | FTDNA Markers 68-111 | Haplotype Identifiers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proj # |
Principal Genealogist |
Earliest Known DENNISON Ancestor Name, BirthYear, BirthPlace |
3 9 3 | 3 9 0 |
1 9 / 3 9 4 | 3 9 1 |
3 8 5 a | 3 8 5 b |
4 2 6 |
3 8 8 |
4 3 9 |
3 8 9 I |
3 9 2 |
3 8 9 I I |
4 5 8 |
4 5 9 a |
4 5 9 b |
4 5 5 |
4 5 4 |
4 4 7 |
4 3 7 |
4 4 8 |
4 4 9 |
4 6 4 a |
4 6 4 b |
4 6 4 c |
4 6 4 d |
4 6 0 |
Y G - H 4 |
Y C A I I a |
Y C A I I b |
4 5 6 |
6 0 7 |
5 7 6 |
5 7 0 |
C D Y a |
C D Y b |
4 4 2 |
4 3 8 |
5 3 1 |
5 7 8 |
3 9 5 S 1 a |
3 9 5 S 1 b |
5 9 0 |
5 3 7 |
6 4 1 |
4 7 2 |
4 0 6 S 1 |
5 1 1 |
4 2 5 |
4 1 3 a |
4 1 3 b |
5 5 7 |
5 9 4 |
4 3 6 |
4 9 0 |
5 3 4 |
4 5 0 |
4 4 4 |
4 8 1 |
5 2 0 |
4 4 6 |
6 1 7 |
5 6 8 |
4 8 7 |
5 7 2 |
6 4 0 |
4 9 2 |
5 6 5 |
7 1 0 |
4 8 5 |
6 3 2 |
4 9 5 |
5 4 0 |
7 1 4 |
7 1 6 |
7 1 7 |
5 0 5 |
5 5 6 |
5 4 9 |
5 8 9 |
5 2 2 |
4 9 4 |
5 3 3 |
6 3 6 |
5 7 5 |
6 3 8 |
4 6 2 |
4 5 2 |
4 4 5 |
Y G - A 1 0 |
4 6 3 |
4 4 1 |
Y G - 1 B 0 7 |
5 2 5 |
7 1 2 |
5 9 3 |
6 5 0 |
5 3 2 |
7 1 5 |
5 0 4 |
5 1 3 |
5 6 1 |
5 5 2 |
7 2 6 |
6 3 5 |
5 8 7 |
6 4 3 |
4 9 7 |
5 1 0 |
4 3 4 |
4 6 1 |
4 3 5 |
Proj # |
Principal Genealogist |
| D-17 | Peter Denison | Robert, 1816, Guiseley, Yorkshire | 13 | 25 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 29 | 17 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 25 | 15 | 21 | 30 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 11 | 11 | 19 | 23 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 37 | 37 | 12 | 12 | D-17 | Peter Denison | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D-31 | Mike Denison | Robert, say 1688, Birstall, Yorkshire | 13 | 25 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 29 | 17 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 25 | 15 | 21 | 29 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 11 | 11 | 19 | 23 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 36 | 37 | 12 | 12 | D-31 | Mike Denison | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| surname DIXON | 1770, County Kent, ENG | 13 | 25 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 29 | 17 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 25 | 15 | 21 | 29 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 10 | 11 | 19 | 23 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 37 | 37 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 15 | 16 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 23 | 23 | 17 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 20 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| surname WILKINSON | 1790, New Jersey, USA | 13 | 25 | 13 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 29 | 17 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 25 | 15 | 21 | 29 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 17 | 10 | 10 | 19 | 23 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 36 | 37 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 15 | 16 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 23 | 23 | 17 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 20 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
You may click on highlighted Project#s (like D-31) to see the posted pedigree for a particular test subject. Click on highlighted Researcher names, like Mike to go to the project directory that shows the full names of the members, and provides clickable e-mail links for the names highlighted there.
The test subject whose “Earliest Known Ancestor” is colored red is the one whose haplotype differs the least from all the others and is therefore designated the Root Prototype Haplotype (RPH)—the haplotype that is likely to be the closest to that of the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) of the group. Marker values that deviate from those of the RPH are deemed to be mutations, and are highlighted in lime green—or tomato, for multistep mutations. Markers with null values, due to deletions, are rendered in dark seagreen.
Where the multicopy markers DYS464 and YCA (each taken as a whole) diverge in value from those of the RPH, the whole adjacent set of values will be colored yellow green, and will be counted as a single mutation. In the same way, reclOH mutations, which may affect several blocks of separated markers, will be colored orange and treated all as a single mutation for purposes of calculating Genetic Distance.
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Last updated 13Oct2021
© John Barrett Robb
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