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This surname project began in 2002 as a Y chromosome DNA study, hence for men only.  As mitochondrial and autosomal DNA testing became available the project expanded to include all genetic genealogy tests.  Men and women, descendants and cousins, all are welcome.

Now with Big Y testing we are beginning to build reliable trees of descent from individual patrilineal ancestors.  In many families these trees can be compared directly to historical records based trees;  for these trees we consult FamilySearch Family Tree, available at no cost.

The project provides a wide variety of power tools for your family research.  On our Activity Feed page members learn a lot and discover others researching lineages connecting to their own lineage.  Our collective fund of information and expertise is enormous, and is available to all project members at no cost.

If you have tested autosomal DNA on Ancestry, MyHeritage, or 23andMe, you likely can transfer your DNA data file to your kit on FamilyTreeDNA.  There is no cost for this, and you get fresh matches and can use the Advanced Matches tool to compare your match lists.

New in 2024:  We recommend you upload your historical records-based tree in GEDCOM file format to an account on MyHeritage.com (free or subscription), and link that tree to your FamilyTreeDNA kit.  This is a new partnership between FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage, and a very valuable bonus to Y-DNA testing on FamilyTreeDNA because FamilyTreeDNA uses these trees to estimate the birth year of each most recent common ancestor (tMRCA).

New in 2026:  FamilyTreeDNA has announced a new Family Finder test using Next Generation Sequencing at 10x coverage.  This is very exciting!  Testers who have provided DNA sample (not transferred a data file) can upgrade for a low one-time cost.

If you have questions or need help, feel free to email any member of our project admin team or post on our Activity Feed.

Last edit:  August 20, 2026.