Help identifying my paternal line's origin (Epperson)

[Alpine Hominin]

Hello,

I've been researching my paternal line for about 5 years. After running into a few obstacles in paper genealogy I got involved in Genetic Genealogy. To date I've had a 37 marker test and a Deep Clade Test (Both through FTDNA). My results returned R1b-L2, and I have no matches at 37 markers. My 2 matches at 25 markers no longer match at 37 (Both have tested to at least 67). This did show me that I'm not part of the majority E1b Epperson family from St Peters Parish, Virginia. A few other Eppersons have come back R1b but none of us match. Most Eppersons give an origin story of French or British roots.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jessamine/epperson.ww.txt

That link is a genealogy of my paternal line to Richard Epperson born 1772 in Bedford Virginia (Through William the subject, my Great Great Great Grandfather). Our family is sometimes recorded as Apperson. I found through various marriage records (And a connection through his brother in law David Spencer) that Richards father was Littleberry Epperson/Apperson. A littleberry Epperson was taken from his father William that fits time/place wise but I have not confirmed the link (Through King Williams Parish, a Huguenot congregation).

The most common stories are:

1. It's a place-name for Epperstone in Nottinghamshire, England. The town is recorded in its history as Epperson sometimes as well, the earliest Epperson records (Early 1600's) are from the nearby Parishes (Epperstone itself, Grantham).
2. It's French. There is a story about Jean-Louis de la valette d'Epernon as an origin for the family but it has been disproved independently by various researchers (Myself included). It could be a Huguenot line like suggested by the Manakintowne Huguenot Society, but the Duke link is fantasy.
3. It's Welsh. From Ap Person (Son of a Parson or Pearson). There are mentions of Appersons immigrating from Wales, like Edmund Apperson in the 1730's.

It could be true that more than one story is correct and the family has multiple origins. The earliest Epperson Immigration document I have found is transcribed here: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/EPPERSON/2000-03/0952959215

I'll include a few pictures of my paternal line in case it helps:
My Great Great Great Grandfather:
http://i1333.photobucket.com/albums/w630/Alpine_Hominin/100_1541_zps07ae8fca.jpg

Great Great Grandfather:
http://i1333.photobucket.com/albums/w630/Alpine_Hominin/100_1543_zpsa57af7c2.jpg
http://i1333.photobucket.com/albums/w630/Alpine_Hominin/100_1546_zps71e307d3.jpg

Great Grandfather:
http://i1333.photobucket.com/albums/w630/Alpine_Hominin/100_1550_zps807da091.jpg

Grandfather:
http://i1333.photobucket.com/albums/w630/Alpine_Hominin/100_1552_zpsa9e2bd53.jpg

There is also a photo of me in my profile. Does anyone have any relevant documents or knowledge? Anyone mind spending some time helping me? My FTDNA and Y-Search ID's are in my signature. Thank you.

[Baltimore1937]

I'm pretty lazy when it comes to doing nitty gritty paper-trail genealogy, which is why I pay for an expensive Ancestry.com membership, which is about do again for another year (ugh). Anyway, I looked at the map, and see that Bedford Town/County is deep in the interior of Virginia. A lot of settlers came down from the north-east before the Revolutionary War (including my own maternal line). I also have a (low level) match with a Spencer in Family Finder at FTDNA; or was the name Spencer in a list of names of a match. The name Spencer also was in the Anson County area, North Carolina, before the Revolutionary War. I think more people have very old links to the aristocracy in England and France than they know. I keep bumping into such like in my maternal line investigations. A duke is probably far fetched (unless it's to the Dukes of Normandy, which seems fairly common). But a Marquis/Marquess or Count/Countess is not impossible/improbable. Well, good luck in your research!

[Andrew Lancaster]

Sorry if this is a side issue, but potentially anything about your surname might be helpful, even if it is concerning another Y lineage.
The very interesting thing to me about the Apperson/Epperson surname is the E-V13 line you mention.

It is an extremely close match for a very striking group of Scottish surnames: Calhoun (and all its variants) and Kirkpatrick. The fantastic thing about this cluster is that the first Calhoun (in a document from the 1400s) was a Kirkpatrick, and so this cluster taken in combination with a medieval document, lets genetic genealogy take us back to a single individual in pre modern times, proving something that could probably never have been proven another way.

Concerning the Apperson/Epperson surname, the fact that they are in this old family is something I think no one has yet made a proposal about? Just because this lineage is not your lineage does not mean it is not relevant. For example the modern chiefs of the clan Calhoun will not have this haplotype either, because they descend from a female heiress. So they are still in the same family, even though not in the same male line.

What can be the connection to Scotland?

Best Regards
Andrew

[Alpine Hominin]

Baltimore1937:

Hello, This David Spencer I mention married my ancestor Richard's Sister Elizabeth Epperson 1795. He was later a witness at Richard's wedding to Rebecca Haden. Do you happen to know if you descend from the same Spencer family?

Andrew Lancaster:

I remember seeing you on other sites regarding the Epperson/Calhoun/Kilpatrick connection, thank you for replying. I haven't completely discounted an origin in Scotland, but I don't have a solid theory of how it could have originated there. Some Eppersons are said to have immigrated from Glasgow. My closest matches (Though all are 4 markers off) are an Adams (4 of 28) a Pitts (4 of 25) A Callaway (4 of 25) and a Gough (4 of 25). I thought I matched a Small and Smolej but at 37 markers we're quite a way off (though only 2 at 25). I'm more and more concluding the Eppersons have recent origins in England, Wales, or Scotland rather than on the continent. The only people I've seen in Ireland with the surname were in Ulster and probably immigrants.

A singular origin with multiple DNA lines makes sense for a patronymic, a place name, and/or a possible Clan connection. You're right that the strong connection to such an old Scottish line gives reason to investigate further. Do you have access to any relevant documents?

[Andrew Lancaster]

Baltimore1937:

A singular origin with multiple DNA lines makes sense for a patronymic, a place name, and/or a possible Clan connection. You're right that the strong connection to such an old Scottish line gives reason to investigate further. Do you have access to any relevant documents?

I think you'll find the document (reference to it) rather quickly with google. I have never ordered a scan of it or anything.

Andrew

[Alpine Hominin]

I think you'll find the document (reference to it) rather quickly with google. I have never ordered a scan of it or anything.

Andrew

I should have been more clear, I meant any relevant documents linking the Epperson/Apperson surname to a Scottish origin. My paper trail hits a wall (In definiteness) with Littleberry and his probable father William. I'm really in need of immigration documents for the early 18th century. Figuring out where the Epperson Immigrant I mentioned in my OP came from would be a clue, but I haven't been able to do so definitely. The Epperstone origin (The one that currently makes the most sense to me) doesn't conflict with the possibility of Calhoun/Kilpatrick descended Epperson's, since it would likely be given to unclaimed or orphaned children and the like.

Some information on Littleberry:
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pda/ps19/ps19_077.htm

This person accepts the William of New Kent link back to Thomas Epperson, the most commonly accepted connection. It could even be that more than one Epperson family immigrated at the same time and the link could be less suspicious as I'm implying. The idea all Eppersons descend from a single person is already disproved so the idea more than one person took the name is the most probable. There are a lot of later Epperson Immigrants from England (1800's) but I want to be as sure as I can be.

[Baltimore1937]

[QUOTE=Alpine Hominin;6840]Baltimore1937:

Hello, This David Spencer I mention married my ancestor Richard's Sister Elizabeth Epperson 1795. He was later a witness at Richard's wedding to Rebecca Haden. Do you happen to know if you descend from the same Spencer family?
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I just don't know. I'm extremely lucky to have even hit on my maternal line in that pre-Revolutionary War era. Those settlers basically degenerated between the early 1700s when they struck out for the wilderness and the post-Revolutionary War era. Hard records don't seem to exist.

As for the name Spencer, it looked to be just a neighbor-type situation around 1745 or a bit later. But there again, much of my maternal ancestors at that time are a complete blank. And I don't believe one commonly held view (on Ancestry) of one of those lines. Maybe Spencer fits in there. I saw the name Spencer associated with a property dispute in Anson County (Anson County was much bigger than now). What surprised me was the name Spencer popping up on Family Finder later on. Actually, what I've been talking about here had to do with the husband of my maternal ancestress back then. He was Jacob Falconbury (various spellings), 1757-1844. Eventually, they all ended up in Indiana (via a stay in Kentucky) after that territory was opened up for settlement.

As for the Huguenots in general, as I understand it, they were middle class professionals and well educated. Their exit from France was France's loss. And they, as a class, would have had a fair chance of having links to the aristocracy. Once you connect to even one person of hereditary rank, you are then linked to their entire colorful lineage. That's the way I got connected. If my tree is right, Elizabeth Fisher (1495-1545), in my case, traces back through her maternal line (my U5b2 haplotype) to Normandy via royalty. I wasn't originally looking for that.


http://genforum.genealogy.com/epperson/


http://genforum.genealogy.com/spencer/

[Andrew Lancaster]

I should have been more clear, I meant any relevant documents linking the Epperson/Apperson surname to a Scottish origin.

No, unfortunately I have never had much success finding out more concerning the Epperson/Apperson origins.

Best Regards
Andrew

[Alpine Hominin]

I found a Family Bible with the genealogy written in it transcribed online:

http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/campbell/bibles/e1620001.txt

Apparently the bible itself was published in Edinburgh in 1793, and includes my line (Richard and Rebecca mentioned are my ancestors). One thing that struck me is that there are a few Adams' and Callaway's mentioned, and some of my closest matches are Adams' and Callaway's. While they're not likely direct genealogy related, it may indicate the three families came from the same area (England in this case) and stuck together for a time (Not uncommon).