Where to start...

I intend to use this platform as a way of tracking progress in my quest of finding if not the direct lineage of Dudley, son of Dudley Sleeper, then a YDNA haplogroup connexion across the pond.  If other Sleepers find some usefulness on these pages, then I will deem that success.  If I find other YDNA testers along the way, even better!

So, YDNA testers.  Where to find?  Well, whilst FamilyTreeDNA has several Sleeper testers, despite direct invites, to date none have joined the Sleeper YDNA Surname project.  I have one hopeful that is high match with my son, but the other five are non-responsive.  Why test if you do not want to connect?  Ah well... people have different goals.  So moving on... 

If I want to find a YDNA test taker (or two) to give grounding to a British connexion, then I need to connect with modern Sleepers who are in or recently from Britain.  Possible sources for these elusive Sleepers would be to look for:

1) Internet search on the name Sleeper... this ended up with more sleeper sofas no matter what other search terms I added to the mix. I'm stopping here until I can get more specific.

2) Check the dreaded Facebook for Sleeper family groups, Sleeper History groups, etc...  So far this has not been useful.  

3) Sleeper trees on Ancestry, MyHeritage, etc.  

• Ancestry: 502 members with Sleeper a last name.  Scratch that for now.  However, there are only 29 with the research interest being Sleeper.  Tidy.
• My Heritage: 2, 555 members with Sleeper last name. 10+K trees.  I do not know if that's strictly Sleeper trees or trees that include a Sleeper somewhere in there...  Let's leave MH for another day...
• FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe will only show those with whom you have shared DNA.  No joy there.
• FamilySearch: 245 pages of Sleepers.  Again, another day.  If I add England, or U.K.? Again, 245 pages...  Quick several entries look redundant...  One more try.  Genealogies: Sleeper, England, 1950-55 birth. Bingo!  12 entries: Sleeper (2); Slipper (1); Sloper (2); Schleper (7) - some of these have Germany as locations.  Neither the Sleeper, Slipper, or even Sloper had anything to work with.  I will need to revisit.
• Geni: 2,667 Sleepers listed...  I do need to spend some time looking at the discussion board and how to use the site more effectively.
• WikiTree: Does not differentiate between users and names in system. Argh...  However, only five profiles appear if searching Sleeper with birth location England.  Richard and his daughter Sabina (circa 1500's, Goodleigh, Devon); Thomas of New Hampshire fame; Henry, 1881-1956, London; and Susanna (no father listed) 1805-1872, York.  Might do to look more closely at this collection later.  Oh, also says there are 11 Sleeper ''genealogists" which looks to be persons searching for Sleeper information?  No joy there...  HOWEVER, I did search for Dudley and got a hit.  So there is a researcher who has entered Dudley, without his father Dudley.  I will need to log in and add this bit...

4) Research the male descendants of those found in the 1939 Register for England and Wales. FindMyPast.com search for surname Sleeper, location England, record type Census, year 1939: 36.  This includes females. This does NOT include those redacted entries for persons possibly still living as birth indicates less than 100 years.  I will need to create a tree for each family with males to eliminate those through daughtering-out (no male children).

5) Check the Guild of One Name Studies.  Nope. No one working on Sleeper.  Couldn't be that lucky. Lol!  They do have some other results though:

I will need to look into these.  Price to join is rather steep for looking at a single probate record.  I may need to come back to that later, but not today.

The marriage records however might prove useful in the future:

6) Historical/genealogical societies.  Hmmm.  Start with the 1939 and look at locations then contact local historical societies?  I think I have a starting plan!