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Hello, I am David M Christopher and I live in Virginia USA.  I am reaching out to you today in hopes someone can help me discover where my ancestors came from in England.  I am working with a Genetic Scientist who I am related to by YDNA from about 3500 years ago. (We share terminal SNP’s and are in haplogroup R-FGC14161 et all.
 
I can prove that I am descended from a Nicholas Christopher born between 1670 and 1683 (using my YDNA and comparing it to other living descendants of Nicholas two sons William and David, but cannot prove his date and place of birth.  Many trees here and in Australia have a pedigree that goes beyond Nicholas all the way back to 1385.  The problem is that not one of those trees have any sources to prove any connection to my 5th Great Grandfather.

I also have a YDNA match but from farther back in time than my US matches who lives in Sydney Australia.  He has a solid paper trail to his ancestors who come from Somerset and Wiltshire Counties in England.
 
My cousin, Andre the genetic scientist, says this about the names and dates of the trees that claim to go back to 1385:
“” The Christopher Kent, UK lineage is too precise with DOB, marriages, children in order and exact deaths to be fiction... this comes from a book or one hell of a serious genealogists....somehow this ended up on Ancestry.com and from there someone plugged in James Howard Christopher and William Nicholas Nicholas ... that's where it turns to crap, but the original document is what you need to find the source for, it's out there somewhere, you may need to contact some people about their sources...this may lead to James Howard Christopher somehow and why 98% put Nicholas with Ann Philips and the Evans and the Stokes and the Taliaferro etc...

There is no pulling this out of a hat, no way, not with this much detail....and similarities with naming children. “”

The mystery starts with the James Howard Christopher born 1640 Kent, England or Middlesex County, Virginia. I can find no sources of him in Middlesex, Va.  Using my cousin from Australia credentials, I can find nothing about him in Kent, England either.

My question for now is:  Is there a way to find out if James Howard Christopher was born in Kent, England (or even existed) and maybe follow his line back in time?

Here is a link to a tree from Ancestry.com.au
http://trees.ancestry.com.au/tree/87517310/family/pedigree

I can show 50 trees from the US and AU and not one has any source other than someone else’s tree.

Would appreciate help in locating any true Sources about James Howard Christopher. 

Another thing that bothers me is I was told by another genealogist at Wiki that people born before 1700 did not have middle names.  Many trees in America give my 5th Great Grandfather a name William Nicholas Christopher, and when I checked sources I have, sure enough, only Nicholas Christopher is listed.  Makes me skeptical of chasing down a James Howard Christopher b 1640.

Thank you
David M Christopher

I am new to this site, just joined today.  My cousin who lives in England gave me the site address and said this was a good place to search for my Ancestors who MAY have come from England. My name is David M Christopher and in the past year, I have pretty well exhausted the work I can do on my family Surname here. 

There are 8 of us who have been YDNA tested and can trace our line to a Nicholas Christopher b. about 1683 someplace in England, we think.  The 8 of us in the US are all within a Genetic Distance of 6 or less from each other.  We have a YDNA match within 9 Genetic Distance who lives in Australia and he can trace his line back to Somerset and Wiltshire Counties in the 15Th and 16Th centuries. 

I would guess the southern part of England would be a good place to start.  I read most of the Beginner topics before posting and practiced searching in counties for my Ancestor Nicholas Christopher at Family Search as suggested by one of the posts.  The problem with searching, is you give a date range of 5 years for birth and get results that are outside that range. 

Well, at least I think it is a problem. If I am looking for someone born in England in 1680 to 1685 I do not want to see a person with same name born in 1702. 

Without joining Ancestry.com International, until I know what I am doing, I would like for someone who lives in England and is experienced to teach me how to search English records. Since the ships manifests for entry over here in Virginia from the 1650 through 1710 (for example) no longer exist, lost or destroyed is there a way I could look for ships manifests from ports in England that might list my ancestor? 

For example our family lore is that Nicholas was a run away or a stow away, but he was to high in society over here to be considered a regular pauper.  I think his first Master, John Burkett,  who went to Shoreditch England, I now know is in London, and married a Jane Abbott in 1690.  I think when they came back to the States in 1690 through 1692 they may have brought Nicholas with them and afforded him an education and or Apprenticeship.  He was reported as a runaway from his indenture in 1701 in court records and was given another year of Indenture.  Yet he comes back to court in November 1704 and admits to running away and cuts a deal with his new Master, Peter Evans, to serve until the next Oct 31, in exchange of being acquitted of the extra time and that he receive a set of gentlemanly clothing and shoes, socks and hat.   That is not your typical Indentured servant circumstance.
 
Everything I could find out about him here is documented in this Word Document you can download
from my Google Drive. 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5j3DySAuDrHLUdneGcxTkNLdlE

Thank you for listening
David M Christopher