Significant DNA testing has already been completed for descendants of this McAtee line.
YDNA tests of descendants of two of the sons of William McAtee (Sr., the Tailor) b. 1746 MD - d. about 1789 Fairfax County, VA) and Mary (maiden name unknown) confirm that they are of the same Haplotype of the Maryland McAtee line that is descended from the presumed Progenitors: Patrick McAtee and Rosamond of Charles County, MD.
DNA of several eldest generation descendants of William McAtee (married to Lettisbery Sexton); my ancestor, Patrick Henry McAtee (married to Jane Harrison) and Benjamin McAtee (married to Winnie Roach and two others); all most likely born in and grew up in Fairfax, VA: show very strongly that these three men were brothers.
The LACK of close DNA matches with proven descendants of the John McAtee who died in Fairfax County, VA in 1812, with eldest generation descendants of the three younger McAtee men of Fairfax County, VA, shows that they were not as closely related.
This DNA information, combined with original source records for these men, confirm that their father was William McAtee, a well-known Tailor of Fairfax County, VA.
William's wife was cited in Fairfax County records as named Mary, but her maiden name was not included. Also, we cannot be certain from the record if she was the mother of William, Patrick Henry and Benjamin, but for now, I am assuming that she was.
*** This William McAtee’s likely BROTHER was the John McAtee (married to Charity Wade) who moved to Fairfax County from MD about 1796, was not living in Fairfax County prior to that year, so he was not the father of these men.
This John McAtee’s Will, proved in Fairfax County, VA in 1812, cited 'William, the son of my brother, William (McAtee).***
Dann Norton, one of our primary McAtee researchers, has proven the family members of this John McAtee. In his tree for this John McAtee: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/86100355/person/23...
Unfortunately, his tree does not show the original source proofs I know that Dann has for this family, but you could message him if you want to know more.
Because of many burned records, we do not have parent to child proofs for a couple of generations of our line.
However, as I stated above, YDNA tested descendants of William McAtee, Patrick Henry McAtee have confirmed the McAtee haplotype matches with other descendants of our known progenitor: Patrick McAtee of Charles County, MD who married Rosamond Browne.
So we continue to research these difficult to prove lines, and hopefully someday we may have a more complete and confident understanding of every generation up to Patrick and Rosamond McAtee.
And of course, we also hope to learn about Patrick's McAtees who were from the Isles.
The next steps for our lines, is to find DNA proofs of descendants of this William McAtee the Tailor of Fairfax County, VA who likely died about 1789 when he dropped off of the Fairfax County Tax records, and his presumed brother: the John McAtee who died in Fairfax County, VA in 1812.
For our McAtee research, I started the McAtee DNA Project at Family Tree DNA.
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/mc-atee-dna-project/about
