Background: Daltons in Project

Dalton
America

Family Group Project

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Origin of the Daltons at the Focus of Our Project

History of Our Family Group Project

How do I join the Dalton America project?

Privacy and Sharing my DNA Results

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For Y-DNA Members

How do Y-DNA results tell me about my ancestors?

Working with my Y-DNA Matches
- Step 1: Reading my Y-DNA Matches
-Step 2: Preparing my Y-DNA dashboard
-Step 3: Locating your Family Subgroup
-Step 4: Connecting with matches

For atDNA (FF) Members

How do atDNA results tell me about my ancestors?

Working with my FF Matches
- Step 1: Reading my FF Matches
- Step 2: Preparing my FF dashboard
- Step 3: Connecting with my FF cousins

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Origin of the Daltons at the Focus of Our Project

Despite the many records of various Daltons in the home counties of the Virginia Piedmont, very little is documented about their relationship. The eldest appears to be Timothy Dalton who received a grant of land on Mechunk Creek in Hanover (later Louisa and Albemarle) County in 1732. Many have assumed that he was the progenitor of all these Daltons. Such speculation, and speculation about the ancestors of these settlers, has been spread by the growth of the internet. Despite rapid duplication of such speculation, no evidence – in DNA or documents – supports the assumption of this Timothy’s fathering the other Daltons nor the identity of their ancestors.

Documentary evidence does, however, speak to their migrations. Five migrated south into Southside Virginia in the 1740s: Timothy, Robert, John, David, and William. Evidence there links them in various ways. One of the Daltons from Albemarle, Samuel, left several of his children in that county and migrated with others first to Georgia and then back to the Mayo River just across the state line from Southside Virginia in far northern North Carolina. Another Dalton from the Piedmont, a second named David, resettled with his children to Rutherford County North Carolina during the Revolution. Others from the original counties and their secondary homes later migrated into western Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, and throughout the Southern United States. Through DNA and careful work with documentary genealogy we are beginning to get some idea of the relationships among these migrants and their descendants. The project hopes to integrate documentary genealogy and Y-DNA study to test these assumptions, to develop firmer theories of the relationship among these Daltons, and to locate their common ancestors before they appear in the documentary record. Success at this project will help link today’s Daltons with the origins of their Virginia ancestors.

While our focus is on the Daltons from the Virginia Piedmont and their descendants, we welcome members from other American Dalton families as well. Many such members are represented on our "Dalton America Y-DNA Charts" with and without matches emerging that would identify their Dalton ancestors. And we hope they will find our advice to members on working with DNA and genealogy helpful to them also. We are always looking for relationships among those members, including their relationship to the Daltons of the Virginia Piedmont. We also welcome those linked to the Daltons through Family Finder and mitochondrial DNA tests. As time passes we will provide additional services for them.

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