Jackson Family Genealogy
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History and Background of the Study of Jackson Families with Roots in Colonial Virginia

By John R. McAnally and Janie J. Kimble

This document updated 25 Feb 2017 and on 16 Apr 2020 the link to WikiTree was changed from rootsweb.
This WikiTree profile is for Samuel Jackson, the earlist known Jackson in this Virginia Project.

This is the study of Jacksons in Colonial Virginia whose descendants' DNA matches that of descendants of Robert Jackson of Hempstead, New York.  John (Jack) McAnally and Janie Kimble worked on this very steadily for most of 2009 and picked it up again in 2012.   Now in 2017 continuing DNA research reveals new aspects to consider as newer tests are available and more folks are being tested.   And so we learn a bit more concerning who is connected and who are not connected.  You can find the resulting chart for these Jacksons at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Jackson-28322.

 Earlier, using what we knew about their DNA, these families appeared closely related to Robert Jackson of Hempstead.  An early question was if these folks are descendants of Robert Jackson or are they a second group of Jackson to have entered America in the early 1600s.  This group had genealogies that ended up in Virginia with their patriarchs being born in the 1650-1750 era.  Additionally they migrated out of a small pocket of counties of that state, namely Prince William, Fauquier, Stafford and Fairfax.  The Big Y test between Donovan Jackson, Mike Jackson and myself (Jack) done in 2015 proved that this Virginia subgroup of our specific Jackson clan had it's most recent common ancestor with the the Hempstead subgroup some 550 or more years before present.  Thus there is no connection on these shores between the Jacksons of Hempstead and the Virginia Samuel Jackson (ca 1661-1722) Stafford County, Virginia.

So these Virginia Jackson families were not added to the Hempstead Jackson database because of uncertainty and that has proved to be the right move.  The many records we purchased from the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Prince William County have increased our knowledge, but we have not been able to connect all of the various families represented in our Y-DNA Virginia database as yet.  Though these Jacksons are my (Jack) relatives as determined by Y-DNA, Charles Leslie McAnally and myself are not included in this study even though we know we are descendants of Samuel Jr. and Vashti Greening Jackson.  Our records are not linked to these families because we do not know the link from our second great grandfather to Samuel Jackson Jr.

In 2009 we had not yet included Lynn research, but the Y-DNA test of Girard Lynn indicated that they were going to be a very important key to understanding the connection between the Jackson and Lynn families.   The standard STR Y-DNA test by Girard Lynn has provided a common match between John and Mark Lynn and in 2009 proved that John Lynn (b abt 1729 Stafford, VA; d 1789 Fauquier, VA), the patriarch of John, Mark and Girard Lynn, was in fact a Jackson of our clan.   At that time we jumped to the conclusion that John Lynn was a direct descendant of Samuel Jackson of Virginia which really was not proven.  Our reasoning was based on the proximity of all of the parties being in Stafford, Prince William and Fauquier Counties of Virginia.  Now, in February, 2017, Mark Lynn's Big Y or SNP test results proved that he and Jack McAnally (Jackson) had a most recent common ancestor within 300 hundred years before present and established a new haplogroup for the Virginia Jacksons of BY19809.  Thus finally proving that John Lynn was indeed a direct male descendant of Samuel Jackson of Stafford County, Virginia. 

There are four conjectures in this chart of Samuel's descendants based on both the Y-DNA connections and family relationships.  If folks will click on the individuals to read their notes and sources, they will find the conjectures clearly indicated.  It has been and will continue to be a fascinating, but frustrating study as Prince William County, is a 'lost records' county with many records missing.  We would welcome any additional research that can be added to this.


WikiTree Profile of earliest know Jackson in the Virginia Project connected by DNA to Robert Jackson
Map of Potomac River watershed
Table of Contents

This page was created 18 Feb, 2010 and is updated periodically as new information is found. Latest update was 15 April 2020 when link was changed from rootsweb to WikiTree.