Welcome to the Slaven Genealogy Exchange.

Welcome to the Slaven Genealogy Exchange! Our purpose is to be a central location to collect and exchange information for Slaven, Slevin, Slavin, Slavey, and other surname variations. As a registered one-name study, the scope of this exchange is world wide. We hope there's something here for the beginning genealogist, the old hand, and the merely curious!

What's New?

We have a new person and family line in The Slaven Cousins DNA Registry, the line of Daniel Fletcher Slavens. Slavens family researchers may be familiar with the "strange" story of Daniel Fletcher Slavens. It was always said/suspected that he had several children with Sarah (Garner) Strange after her husband John Strange died. Y-DNA testing of male descendants of DF Slavens from his marriage to Martha Hall and from Sarah Strange matched, showing (at least in the tested case) the supposition was true. But the Y-DNA testing also showed that they did not match descendants of John Slaven of Highland County; surprising, as DF Slavens's father William B. Slavens was suspected to be a son or grandson of John's sons William or Daniel, who migrated from Virginia to Tennessee and did not leave substantial records. Autosomal testing could also help confirm the relationships, but there's an additional wrinkle-- Sarah Garner Strange's mother was a Rebecca Slavens, who is also suspected to be a daughter or granddaughter of William or Daniel Slavens of Tennessee. So... descendants of DF Slavens and Martha Hall would not be expected to match with Slavens descendants, unless it's through another branch of their family. But descendants of Sarah Garner Strange-- with either DF Slavens or John Strange-- could match with other Slavens descendants as Sarah's mother was a Slavens. (I say "could" match because the connection would be far enough back that descendants from the two lines may not share enough DNA to be identified as a match.)

This would be a nice collaborative project, checking matches between the Strange and DF Slavens lines with other Slavens families. It also might be possible-- although tough, considering the number of generations involved-- to determine the true paternal line of DF Slavens. The Y-DNA testing hinted that it might be "Gore."

FamilyTreeDNA has reduced the number of Y-DNA testing options that they offer (aww...) but have also lowered prices on the tests and upgrades! The FamilyFinder (autosomal) test remains at $79 (but is often on sale). FTDNA is discontinuing the 67 marker Y-DNA test, but cutting the price of the 37 and 111 marker tests, and reducing the price of the Y-DNA upgrades. Note that you can still upgrade to 67 markers if you previously tested at 12, 25, or 37 markers.

Here's a table of the old and new prices for the Y-DNA tests and upgrades:

Test	Old price	New price
Y-37	$169	$119
Y-111	$359	$249
Y-12 to Y-37	$109	$79
Y-12 to Y-67	$199	$149
Y-12 to Y-111	$359	$199
Y-25 to Y-37	$59	$49
Y-25 to Y-67	$159	$119
Y-25 to Y-111	$269	$189
Y-37 to Y-67	$109	$89
Y-37 to Y-111	$228	$139
Y-67 to Y-111	$99	$89

Ancestry has announced that they will discontinue the Rootsweb mailing lists as of March 2, 2020. Now, I know some of you may be thinking, "Didn't Ancestry pretty much kill off Rootsweb a couple years ago (by accident or intention)?" and the of rest of you are thinking, "What the heck is Rootsweb mailing list?" Yes, all of Rootsweb was down for a looooong time, but over the past few months most everything has come back.

There were two Rootsweb lists for variations of the surname, a Slaven-Slavey list and a Slavens list. The Slaven-Slavey list is listed as "inactive," which I believe means that there is no longer a moderator for the list. The last message was posted in November 2011. I am the moderator of the Slavens list; the last message there was in July 2016.

Ancestry says that they will keep the archives of the Rootsweb lists available even after active support is suspended in March. You can find the Slavens list archive here, and the Slaven-Slavey list archive here.

Some Rootsweb lists are going to move to Google, Facebook, or Groups.io. At the moment, I have no plans to try to resurrect these list on a new platform. If you have any input, questions, etc. email me at iarooster@earthlink.net.

Older News.

Here's a nice blog with instructions on hoe to download your autosomal DNA data from each of the major companies and upload it elsewhere, such as to GEDmatch.

We have a new Slevin family in the The Slaven Cousins DNA Registry. Like most of us that share a variaton of the surname, the family that originated in Ireland, and emigrated to the United States just over a hundred years ago. Are you connected to this family? Check out the registry!

Have you or a relative with a Slaven(s), Slavin, Slevin, etc. ancestor received autosomal ("ancestry") DNA results recently? Email me the information to add an entry to the The Slaven Cousins DNA Registry so that your "cousins" can find you. A listing in the Registry is especially helpful if the surname is no longer a Slaven varient and you don't have a family tree posted on the testing company's website.

We have a new Slaven descendant in the The Slaven Cousins DNA Registry. This is a family that originated in Ireland and emigrated to the United States before the Great Famine, living in Rhode Island, Iowa, New York, and Nebraska in the 19th century. Are you connected to this family? Check out the registry!

Descendants of Richard Harve Slaven/Slavey might be interested in this newspaper story about hiking in the No Business area.

A Slaven Y-DNA Project member (ID B003) has upgraded his test to 111 markers, and it shows close kinship to the 111 marker test results of a descendant of John Slaven of County Tyrone, Ireland/Highland County, Virginia (ID B001). We currently only display Y-DNA test results up to 67 markers; however, you can see the full results at the FamilyTreeDNA Slaven Project results page. The two men do not share enough autosomal DNA to show as a match in the FTDNA FamilyFinder test; this is not surprising since the common ancestor would be at least 300 years and eight or more generation in the past.

Attention Richard Harve Slaven descendants.
The Oneida (Tennessee) Independent Herald had a nice story on the (former) No Business community, and Richard Harve Slaven and a few of his descendants. It's probably not news to family who still live in the Big South Fork area, but it appears to be a good overview for the general public. You can find it here. A quick scan of used book sites don't come up with any copies of Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past, which is mentioned in the story.

Ancestry has released some new DNA tools. The most interesting tool is ThruLines, which-- among other things-- harnesses other trees to bridge your tree with "stubby" trees of your DNA matches. This looks to be a great way to make contact with formerly unknown third or fourth cousins who may have family history or photos that you don't. Here's a video from RootsTech where Christa Cowan discusses ThruLines and the other new Ancestry features, and here's a blog from Leah Larkin discussing ThruLines, and a blog from Roberta Estes that goes into the benefits and pitfalls in more detail. Roberta also blog about clearing your browser cache and/or cookies as that can impact whether you see the new Ancestry features.

About this site

This is a private, noncommercial educational site for the free exchange of information. It is not associated with Ancestry, Rootsweb, MyFamily, or any commercial site. (That means no banner ads, no pop-up or pop-under windows, no unsolicited email!)

All content on this site is believed to be compliant with U.S. copyright law and Fair Use provisions.

Because the site is an outgrowth of my personal research, it's tilted towards the Slavens surname. But that's easily fixed-- contribute your Slavin, Slevin, etc. data for the site! Here are some of the types of information that you can share:

Census transcriptions Census returns can be a gold mine of information for both the beginning and the experienced researcher, but many people don't have easy access to films. Finding your family in a transcription here makes requesting a film or a lookup much more worthwhile, so won't you share? We need people who have access to their state's Soundex indexes and are willing to transcribe the Slaven(s), Slavin, Slevin, etc. entries! It's S415 and you'll see about 20 Sullivans for each Slaven.

Biographies and reminiscences Share the bios from county history books, reminiscences from ancestors, old family letters, your own memories, the family history that was written for a reunion decades ago...

Obituaries Transcriptions of obituaries and death notices.

Photographs Share family photos, or photos of grave sites. Photos continue to be the most popular items on the site.

Links Do you have or know of a family-related site? Does a GenWeb county site offer information on a branch of the family? Share it here!

Other help! Other information that doesn't fit the categories above is also welcome.

All corrections, suggestions, criticisms, etc. are welcome too! Be sure to put Slaven, Slavin, and something meaningful in the subject line-- I get tons of spam so an email with no subject or "Hi!" will probably be deleted unread!

Larry Slavens
7018 Airline Ave.
Des Moines, IA 50322

iarooster@earthlink.net