About us
We now have results from eight project members, and have six distinct Family Groups. Two from Scotland (Shetland Islands) one from Ireland, one from New York, USA (British Isles connection not yet established but appears to be leaning toward Wales, our Hewison line from England, and our Huson line from the Netherlands.
We now have enough members of the Hughson DNA project to be able to discuss the results.
If you look at the distribution of the Hughson Surname in Great Britain it is concentrated almost exclusively in the Shetland Island area in the North (see the surname distribution link listed in Project News). We now have two distinct family lines that originate in the Shetlands, which is not suprising, as there were probably many men named Hugh who had sons. Some of our participants initially believed that the American Hughson lines would all descend from the Shetland Island Hughsons, but so far that is not the case, the New York Hughsons are a different line unto themselves and we have one line from Ireland. As of this writing, there are only a few individuals in the Family Tree DNA and the Y-Search data bases that have DNA test results close to the New York Hughsons. They all have different surnames, but they all can be traced back to Wales either directly or indirectly. The close DNA matches are the surnames Thomas, Rowlands and Hughes, all of which seem to originate in Wales. The Hughson name is almost nonexistent in Wales, even though the DNA tests imply that Wales is the most likely origin of the family. This makes one wonder if the American immigrants changed the name from Hughes to Hughson when they came to America or the Americans changed the name to Hughson for them, as was often the case with immigrant families. This is all speculative at this point, and we will see if it clarifies as more results come in. It would sure be nice to have some more American Hughsons to test to see if our New York line is representative of the American families.
We now have enough members of the Hughson DNA project to be able to discuss the results.
If you look at the distribution of the Hughson Surname in Great Britain it is concentrated almost exclusively in the Shetland Island area in the North (see the surname distribution link listed in Project News). We now have two distinct family lines that originate in the Shetlands, which is not suprising, as there were probably many men named Hugh who had sons. Some of our participants initially believed that the American Hughson lines would all descend from the Shetland Island Hughsons, but so far that is not the case, the New York Hughsons are a different line unto themselves and we have one line from Ireland. As of this writing, there are only a few individuals in the Family Tree DNA and the Y-Search data bases that have DNA test results close to the New York Hughsons. They all have different surnames, but they all can be traced back to Wales either directly or indirectly. The close DNA matches are the surnames Thomas, Rowlands and Hughes, all of which seem to originate in Wales. The Hughson name is almost nonexistent in Wales, even though the DNA tests imply that Wales is the most likely origin of the family. This makes one wonder if the American immigrants changed the name from Hughes to Hughson when they came to America or the Americans changed the name to Hughson for them, as was often the case with immigrant families. This is all speculative at this point, and we will see if it clarifies as more results come in. It would sure be nice to have some more American Hughsons to test to see if our New York line is representative of the American families.