Ancestry and Heritage Testing

How Genealogical DNA Tests Benefit your Ancestral Research

(For privacy purposes, some details have been removed)

I run the SMITH Family Project at a genealogy testing facility, my maiden name was SMITH. Before creating this project, I had been researching my family for years. In these years, I (and others in my family) have not been able to get back any further than John SMITH who was born ca. 1725. There was much speculation on where this John was born and also whether he was actually British or French with such a common surname.

I began researching all the SMITH branches years ago trying to figure out where our branch may fit in. I never found anything concrete to prove or disprove any connection to the British SMITH branches in this country.

When Genealogical DNA testing came along, this gave me another opportunity to prove/disprove a connection to one of the SMITH branches which is why I started the SMITH Family Project. I had a male family member take a beginner's Genealogy DNA test. We started with just a 12-marker test, I soon realized that we needed to test more markers if I was going to find out anything or make any possible connections as there were a number of 12-marker matches with various surnames and it was obvious that more testing needed to be done to rule out those that were definitely not related. Within a couple of weeks of receiving the first results back, I upgraded the test to Y-DNA 37-marker.

I must point out that I was very aware at this time that I might actually be looking for a surname other than SMITH. Some family stories that had been passed down over the years had speculated on a few possible other names, such as Smyth, Smithe, Smithie, Smythie, Smithy, Smythy  all of which could have been changed to SMITH upon entering the United States. 

Once I received the second set of results, a total of Y-DNA 37 markers now, I realized I had much more concrete information. There were no matches to a SMITH (at least not close enough to call them relatives); however, out of the 37-markers tested a male family member's results matched 35-markers with a gentleman named Smithie.

I wrote to this gentleman immediately. He wrote back and told me of the research he had done on his Smithie family name, that they had come from Great Britain; and that perhaps family members had set sail for the USA and had their family name changed or shortened upon arrival.  

Researching this I found that Smithie (a name I mentioned above as being passed down through the family) had been shortened to SMITH in some cases.

Once again, I upgraded a male family member's test from 37-markers to 67-markers. The Smithie man also upgraded his test to 67-markers, when these results came back we were only off by 5-markers.

This Smithie gentleman has a degree in genetics and gives seminars on Genealogy and DNA testing. He believes that this is the line that my family came from even though we have yet to make the family connections. He also believes that if I can get my line back one or two more generations and we should be able to connect the families together. I am very excited about this; however, getting my line back even one more generation is proving to be quite challenging and I'm not sure that I'll be able to find the records to support this theory.

So I said all this, number one to tell my story; but, more importantly, to say that the matches with alternate surname can be useful if you know or believe that there may be a possibility that: 1) your surname may have been changed at some point in time, 2) someone in your direct line may have been adopted or not the natural child of the parents, or 3) there were some indiscretions on the part of your ancestors and so a name change was chosen as a way to create distance.