This project is open to any male bearing the surname of Chant and who is interested in tracing the paternal line ancestry beyond the time frame of autosomal dna tests. The goal of the Chant surname project is the hope that Y-DNA testing may help establish whether families bearing that surname actually originate from the same early ancestor or are, as is more likely, distinctly separate. One example of that goal would be that for more than thirty years researchers tracing the history of the Chant surname through conventional means have tried to establish whether there is an ancestral connection, before the 19th century, between the various Chant families originating in villages mainly in the English counties of Somerset and Dorset. The name is known in those counties in the 16th century but also in Lincolnshire and Norfolk - so is there a connection? Application to join the project with details regarding the earliest known ancestor is welcome to males bearing the Chant surname, who has either had, or intends to have, their Y-DNA tested. This project of course may also be on interest to researchers bearing a different surname if other research indicates possible descent from a male Chant.