INTRODUCTION
THIS IS A Y-DNA PROJECT FOR MEN WITH THE GILES NAME OR WITH ONE OF ITS VARIANTS. If your connection to the Giles name is only through autosomal (FTDNA's Family Finder or a transfer in from another Company) or mitochondrial testing, we ask that, instead of applying to join the project yourself, you seek out a relation of the Giles paternal line and encourage or sponsor his testing.
SOURCES OF THE NAME
The Gilles name is said to derive from a 6th / 7th century A.D. saint of that name whose birth, according to legend, was into a noble Athenean family. St Gilles, as he became known (adapted from the Latin St Aegidius), sought refuge in Provence to practice a life of solitude. Nonetheless, he became renowned for the miracles he performed, and consequently his name was taken up both by individuals and institutions, not just in France, but in the Low Countries and across the Channel in England and beyond, where the name has prevailed principally as St Giles.
When surnames were being introduced, it is easy to see how those associated with institutions dedicated to St Giles would adopt the surname Giles. A potentially more closely genetically-aligned occurrence of the name occurs in Ireland, though. The Ó Glaisne sept of Co. Louth, has had its name anglicised as Giles; but as with all sept names, only those of the founding family should share the same Y-DNA profile; unrelated followers of the sept taking the name will likely share a variety of separate genetic profiles, albeit restricted to those prevailing locally.
The Giles surname and its variants are, like all other surnames, further spread across the genetic spectrum by NPEs (Non-paternity events, such as illegitimacy, adoption etc.).
GENETIC IDENTIFICATION
In view of the above, we can expect many separate Y-DNA lineages featuring the Giles surname and its variants. To maintain the focus of the project, it is necessary therefore that we restrict membership to male testers who have a verifiable most distant known paternal ancestor (MDKA) with the surname of Giles (or a variant thereof), preferably with that known ancestry stretching at least back into the 19th century.
On our Y-DNA Results Overview page, the intention is to segregate each Giles (or variant) family having its own (roughly) second millennium stem. Some such groups may be temporarily amalgamated pending deeper testing by their members (to Big Y-700 or at least Y-DNA111 levels).
HELP US TO HELP YOU
The project will be more successful if all members display their
essential genetic and historical identity in the public domain. Please do the
following two things:
(1) Ensure
you have opted in to sharing your “pseudonymized DNA results and ancestor
information” in the public results pages. Under the Project Preferences tab in your
Account Settings, scroll down to Group Project Profile. Ensure the switch is “On”.
(2) Maximise
the information about your MDKA which appears in the Paternal Ancestor Name
field in our Y-DNA Results Overview. To populate this field, go to Name and
Birth/Death Date under Direct Paternal Ancestor in the path Account Settings
> Genealogy > Earliest Known Ancestors. This field has a 50 character
limit; it is suggested that birthplace is more important than death date in
identifying your ancestor.
Examples:
Christopher
Giles b c 1810 Edmonton MDX. (where c = circa (approximate) and MDX is the
Chapman County Code for Middlesex).
Where
you are unsure of the birthyear and / or birthplace of a father but know those
of a son::
Robert
s/o John Giles b 1834 Union, Allegheny PA (where PA is the US state code for
Pennsylvania).