About us
The Worrall surname project has been established with the goal of uniting the Worrall surname family as well as related surname families worldwide. We are looking to link together branches of our family that cannot otherwise be linked due to a lack of documented evidence. A secondary goal is to discover how many distinct lines exist in the Worrall family.
Participation will help breakdown brick walls that exist in your paper trail.
The project focuses predominantly on yDNA (direct paternal ancestry, but all people related to the Worrall family by birth, marriage or adoption are welcome to join the project and contribute). Participants will be grouped together according to ancestral line (e.g., Lancashire Worrall family, Cheshire Worrall family, Yorkshire Worrall family etc...)
What is yDNA and how it does relate to the Worrall family?
yDNA stands for Y-Chromosome DNA. It is passed uniquely from a father to his son. It is used to trace a direct male line on a family tree. It is passed from a father to a son like a surname. A son’s yDNA is going to be very similar to his father’s, his grandfather’s, his great grandfather’s and so on.
Sometimes there will be mutations that occur in the yDNA that is passed from a father to his son. A mutation is just a change in the yDNA. In genealogy, we call these mutations ‘SNPs’ (single-nucleotide polymorphism).
What is important with SNPs is that they will be passed down to all descendants of the person in whom the mutation first occurred. These mutations are often passed down with surnames. We can calculate the dates at which these SNPs took place to estimate when people shared a common ancestor. This is an important way that we can work around brick walls in our paper trail.
This project looks to identify the SNPs that set apart the Worrall family from other families. The three founding Worrall members are all positive for a SNP called DF19. This SNP is believed to have originated in a man living in the area between Denmark and Northern Germany around 2400 BC. This is well before the adoption of surnames or the arrival of the Worrall family in England. At this point, we have identified three different branches of the Worrall family. The more Worrall men that test, the better that we can understand how we are all related.
The best way to build a database of Worrall testers is through Big Y700 testing. The benefit of Big Y700 testing is that instead of seeing if you are positive for a set of predetermined SNPs, it will simply tell you what SNPs are present in your Y-Chromosome. With every person that tests, new SNPs are identified that are unique to each tester’s family and everyone’s genetic tree is further refined. Another hypothesis I have is that each geographical group of the Worrall family will have SNPs unique to it. The more refined that the tree is with different branches of the Worrall family represented, the more likely that we are to discover the SNP that defines all the different branches of the family.
The Big Y7000 also includes 700 STR markers. So with the Big Y700, you get both SNP testing and STR testing in one test. Check out the link to the FAQ to learn more about SNPs and STRs : https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/worrall/faq
Do all the Worrall branches originate from Worrall village in the West Riding of Yorkshire?
Most Worrall men do not originate from Worrall village, but rather from the Wirral peninsula. The majority of Worrall men in Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Midlands take their name from the Wirral peninsula. A minority of Worrall men centred in the West Riding of Yorkshire take their name from Worrall village. A way that we can distinguish the two groups is through SNP testing. The men of Worrall village have been found to belong to Haplogroup I, while the Worrall men of Wirral have been found to belong to Haplogroup R. Haplogroups are SNPs that divide all of humanity into different paternal lineages. People who belong to different haplogroups who do not share patrilineal descent.
Are Worrall and Worrell two different surnames?
Worrall and Worrell are two variants of a single surname. In the 1880 American Census, Worrell was significantly more common in the States than Worrall, whereas in England it was the reverse. Worrell people are encouraged to join this project.
Participation will help breakdown brick walls that exist in your paper trail.
The project focuses predominantly on yDNA (direct paternal ancestry, but all people related to the Worrall family by birth, marriage or adoption are welcome to join the project and contribute). Participants will be grouped together according to ancestral line (e.g., Lancashire Worrall family, Cheshire Worrall family, Yorkshire Worrall family etc...)
What is yDNA and how it does relate to the Worrall family?
yDNA stands for Y-Chromosome DNA. It is passed uniquely from a father to his son. It is used to trace a direct male line on a family tree. It is passed from a father to a son like a surname. A son’s yDNA is going to be very similar to his father’s, his grandfather’s, his great grandfather’s and so on.
Sometimes there will be mutations that occur in the yDNA that is passed from a father to his son. A mutation is just a change in the yDNA. In genealogy, we call these mutations ‘SNPs’ (single-nucleotide polymorphism).
What is important with SNPs is that they will be passed down to all descendants of the person in whom the mutation first occurred. These mutations are often passed down with surnames. We can calculate the dates at which these SNPs took place to estimate when people shared a common ancestor. This is an important way that we can work around brick walls in our paper trail.
This project looks to identify the SNPs that set apart the Worrall family from other families. The three founding Worrall members are all positive for a SNP called DF19. This SNP is believed to have originated in a man living in the area between Denmark and Northern Germany around 2400 BC. This is well before the adoption of surnames or the arrival of the Worrall family in England. At this point, we have identified three different branches of the Worrall family. The more Worrall men that test, the better that we can understand how we are all related.
The best way to build a database of Worrall testers is through Big Y700 testing. The benefit of Big Y700 testing is that instead of seeing if you are positive for a set of predetermined SNPs, it will simply tell you what SNPs are present in your Y-Chromosome. With every person that tests, new SNPs are identified that are unique to each tester’s family and everyone’s genetic tree is further refined. Another hypothesis I have is that each geographical group of the Worrall family will have SNPs unique to it. The more refined that the tree is with different branches of the Worrall family represented, the more likely that we are to discover the SNP that defines all the different branches of the family.
The Big Y7000 also includes 700 STR markers. So with the Big Y700, you get both SNP testing and STR testing in one test. Check out the link to the FAQ to learn more about SNPs and STRs : https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/worrall/faq
Do all the Worrall branches originate from Worrall village in the West Riding of Yorkshire?
Most Worrall men do not originate from Worrall village, but rather from the Wirral peninsula. The majority of Worrall men in Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Midlands take their name from the Wirral peninsula. A minority of Worrall men centred in the West Riding of Yorkshire take their name from Worrall village. A way that we can distinguish the two groups is through SNP testing. The men of Worrall village have been found to belong to Haplogroup I, while the Worrall men of Wirral have been found to belong to Haplogroup R. Haplogroups are SNPs that divide all of humanity into different paternal lineages. People who belong to different haplogroups who do not share patrilineal descent.
Are Worrall and Worrell two different surnames?
Worrall and Worrell are two variants of a single surname. In the 1880 American Census, Worrell was significantly more common in the States than Worrall, whereas in England it was the reverse. Worrell people are encouraged to join this project.