Welcome! HELTON, HELTONS, HILTON, HILTONS, HYLTON, HYLTONS, etc. The Helton DNA Project has been established to provide further genealogical support to Helton family researchers internationally. All those with Helton connections are warmly invited to join the project. The project is open to all Helton variants. The goal of the project is to determine which of the various Helton lines are related in a genealogically significant time frame. Base on these DNA results, we try to assign project members to extended family groups. We encourage you to contact members of your family group to see how you may be related.

For details on the project and the patriarchs of the testees, please visit the archived  Helton Family DNA Project pages HERE. Also, Family Summaries (Family Summary info has been copied to our Goals page), and Family Trees. [ Note - these pages, archived from our old site, are no longer being maintained.]

Dr. Tyrone Bowes, PHD best explains why so many tests don't match the surname expected or match many tests of differing surnames in his article "Using Y Chromosome DNA Testing to Pinpoint a Genetic Homeland in Ireland":

A son typically inherits two things from his father, his surname and his Y chromosome. The surname has changed considerably since his ancestor first adopted it, in Ireland it has been anglicized from its original Gaelic to English, often losing its Mac, or O’ in the process. Even its spelling in English has evolved over the centuries from, for example, O’Bouey, to Boe, and Bowe to its current form Bowes. The surname has often changed so much so that its original meaning in Gaelic can only be guessed at. However, in the estimated thousand years since an ancestor took his surname, the Y chromosome inherited from him remains virtually identical. This is assuming of course that he has inherited his Y chromosome, given that on average only 50% of individuals sharing a unique surname will have inherited the original Y chromosome of the founding ancestor. Where the Surname does not match the Y chromosome it is the result of what scientists refer to as a ‘non-paternal event,’ which encompasses such events as adoption, infidelity, and illegitimacy, often resulting in the maternal transmission of a surname.⁷ Only analysis of the Y chromosome will reveal whether maternal transmission has occurred.

Genetic genealogy for descendants of Irish ancestors is made easy for several reasons. Ireland was the first Country in Europe to adopt inherited paternal surnames. ⁴⁷⁸ These surnames were a genealogical record in themselves, denoted by Mac’ or O’ meaning son of, or grandson of respectively.

For project members interested in digging further:
The y-chromosome markers tested here and displayed on our DNA Results page are called STRs (short tandem repeats). A different type of marker, SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) can in theory be even more specific. SNPs can shed light on the lineage of your ancestors, tracing back to the earliest humans. Different SNPs mark groups of different sizes. FTDNA attempts to predict the most specific SNP consistent with your STR results, but SNP testing can narrow it further. (If I have put you into a specific family group, and another man in that same group has tested and found a more specific SNP than the one predicted for you, chances are very good that you and all other members of your family group share the same more specific SNP.) Your most specific known or predicted SNP is called your terminal SNP. You can do SNP testing to try to narrow it down even further, with the eventual goal of finding an SNP that is exclusive to your branch of your extended family. Backtracking from this, you may be able to accurately trace your lineage in the period just before surnames were established. (Yes, this can be done to an extent with STR results, but STRs can be misleading. With either STRs or SNPs, success will vary depending on whether others who match you have tested.)

BigY700 tests are recommended with a corresponding autosomal (FF) test.

Project members are encouraged to join the DNA project established for their terminal SNP. The administrators of those projects will help guide you in further SNP testing. These projects can be difficult to find, but here is a list of projects found for current project members:
   E-L117 - www.familytreedna.com/public/E3b
   I-L233 - www.familytreedna.com/groups/i-2a-hap-group
   I-M223 - www.familytreedna.com/groups/m223-y-clan
   I-M253 - www.familytreedna.com/public/yDNA_I1
   J-P58 - www.familytreedna.com/public/J-M267
   Q-BZ2034 - www.familytreedna.com/groups/amerind-y
   Q-M3 - www.familytreedna.com/groups/amerind-y
   R-CTS10893 - www.familytreedna.com/public/U106
   R-M269 - www.familytreedna.com/groups/r-1b
   R-M512 - www.familytreedna.com/groups/r-1a
   R-P25 - www.familytreedna.com/groups/r-1b
   R-P310 - www.familytreedna.com/groups/r-1b
   R-Z253 - www.familytreedna.com/public/R-Z253