This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Allison Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/hZ.2ADIB/1364.2.1.2 Message Board Post: Hi Wendy, I'm replying to a message that you posted over three years ago. I hope that your e-mail address is the same. You said that you were just beginning your research on your Allisons at that time and I'm wondering if you know more about your Allison ancestors from Dunnington, just out of York in the East Riding. You said that your earliest known Allison relative was John Allison who was a farmer at Dunnington and born 1825-1835. My Ellison/Allison ancestors were in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the 1600s. Although finding a paper trail between your Allisons and mine would be very difficult, considering the time span of 200 years from the 1600s to the 1800s, there is a way to find out if two men living today with the same surname are related, regardless of how long ago their common ancestor lived. We can do that by testing Y-chromosome DNA. I thought that you might be connected to one or more of the participants in the Allison Y-Chromosome DNA Project. The URL for the Allison/Ellison Y-Chromosome DNA Project Results website is http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~allisonellisondna/index.htm There are several participants who trace their Allison/Ellison ancestry to England. When you click on a participants ID # on the DNA Results chart, you will see his paternal ancestry chart. If you make contact with an Allison descendant of your line, he would be a very welcome new member of the Allison/Ellison DNA Project. If his DNA results matches any of the current or future participants (at present nearly 90 of them), you would be able to share genealogical information and learn more about the origins of your John Allison. Y-Chromosome DNA is passed from father to son down through the generations just as surnames are passed from father to son. Only men inherit the Y-chromosome, therefore only men with the Allison or Ellison surnames (or variant spellings) can be participants in the Allison/Ellison Y-chromosome DNA Family Reconstruction Project. In other words, the Y-Chromosome DNA samples can only be provided by males who HAVE the ALLISON / ELLISON Surnames or similar spellings. If you would like more information about the DNA Project, I would be glad to provide it. Sincerely, Mary Allison Yonan Co-ordinator, Allison/Ellison DNA Project yonan at fgi.net Member of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) www.isogg.org