The Stephens-Stevens men’s DNA project has been set up to test the DNA of Stephens-Stephen-Stephin-Stephenson-Stevens-Steven-Stevin-Stevenson-Stevinson male descendants from the various countries, and ethnic groups, in Europe who have settled in North America, Australia, Africa, Asia and other places around the world.

The DNA men’s test for this project is a Y chromosome NRY 25 marker test that employs a 60-second buccal swab to obtain skin cells. After this cell sampling, the plastic swab tip is then sealed in a small preservative liquid vial and mailed back to Family Tree DNA in Houston in their return test kit envelope. The test is $169 plus $2 postage and is specially reduced for Stephens-Stevens men that participate in this project. See the JOIN STEPHENS STUDY for additional information about this DNA test. We also ask that each participant email us a short, direct lineage tree back to his father and grandfather and then back to the oldest known Stephens-Stevens ancestral great grandfather that has been identified in your lineage. This family lineage will be used to compare to other men in our project whose DNA matches the participants.

This DNA test will provide values for each of the 25 DNA markers to each male test participant. These DNA marker result values can be browsed at any time at this online website under DNA RESULTS. All DNA results for each participant will be reported by DNA test kit number so that each test individual may remain anonymous unless they contact us via email to give us permission to print their names with their DNA results. We will also identify which haplotype or SNP YCC grouping that each individual belongs too. Also our host company FTDNA provides a wealth of other information for each participant at his own individual “results” webpage.

Many of us are amateur genealogists who have searched for paper records and documentation for many years to trace their family lineage back to the ancestor who settled in this country or to identify his homeland in Europe. Many of us also at a “brick wall” in our attempts to find this ancestor as the paper trail has “run out” or we have reached a early colonial period when records were not kept. DNA testing can help many of the Stephens-Stevens genealogical researchers, like my wife, who has not been able to identify her David Stephens (b. 1780 North Carolina) parents or verify her “family legend” that our Stephens are from Wales. DNA testing can provide the means to find this Welsh linkage by matching other Stephens cousins DNA markers who know they are from Wales or live there today.

Many folks are adopted. Our Stephens family has four members that were adopted in Kansas during the later 1800’s. If you are adopted but believe that your birth heritage is from a Stephens-Stevens lineage, then this study might help you find related Stephens-Stevens cousins through DNA marker matching and provide a means to document this ancestral heritage. However this test will not “prove paternity” as only part of the male Y chromosome is being tested.

There are now more that +350 SURNAME studies testing NRY DNA and for the ladies (and men) mtDNA tests. Many of the these families like the LOWES here and the Allisons, in which we have personally been involved with, have made many connections to previously unknown cousins in the United States and Europe when no paper documentation was available. DNA is now a proven genealogical tool for any Stephens-Stevens descendant who wants to trace their ancestry back to the colonial period here or abroad.

Please contact us if you would like to participate in the Stephens-Stevens men’s DNA testing project.