Before her death in November, 1999, Joyce Brownlow of the UK had done some amazing research in attempting to link the various Brownlow family branches. Paper trails become less common the further back in time we need to go and that can frustrate the finest genealogist. Joyce believed that all Brownlow's of today orginated from a common ancestor who was found in Rivington, Lancashire over 1000 years ago. She found established records of Brownlows fanning out across the UK across the centuries but originating in the Rivington area. Results to date suggest separate groupings of Brownlow's/Brownlee's. We are finding some recent autosomal matches between Brownlow and Brownlee descendants from Northern Ireland which may help us actually genetically link the Irish titled line and the English titled line of Brownlow's as well as their connection with many Brownlee's. One subgrouping of Brownlow's have a J2 haplogroup which is semitic in origin. There is one hypothesis that that his line springs from a group of Moorish archers brought to Lincolnshire around the time of William the Conquerer. I am sure there are other theories...but this one is the most engaging at this time. The other Brownlow line is alleged to originate in Rivington, Lancashire. I am interested in finding more participants from this lineage and comparing results to Brownlee's of Ireland and Scotland. It was recently brought to my attention that the Brownlee's were a sept of the Clan Hamilton over the border in Scotland. It needs further testing. ****Seriously looking for men who are direct descendants of Patrick Chamberlaine who married Leticia Brownlow (their line became the Baron Lord Lurgans in Northern Ireland). Also, we need one or two representatives of the Cust family who hold the English titled line. I understand that both titled lines male lines died out in the late 1600's but there is still much we can learn by having the y chromosomes of these two groups for comparison. *****Also, seriously looking for Brownlow's/Brownlee's from Ireland to test. ****Need representatives from James and Kate of Virginia line.