This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: BowesSurnameStudy Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.bowe/370.1.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Rats, I hate it when that happens. I guess there are two options I can think of: Exhausting all the documentary research you can: birth, marriage and death certificates, and naturalization records, obituaries etc. Sometimes it takes some digging and a focus on sibling lines to come up with relevant data that can be used to help you over the wall. Another possibility is to do FTDNA's Family Finder test. This one is not limited to the surname. Rather than testing the Y chromosome, it will test autosomal DNA. In this way you can find matches to any related lines going back five generations. Some people say they have found connections further back than five generations, even 10, but five is what FTDNA will tell you. No one else in the Bowe surname study has yet done the Family Finder test. I think over time this will become a useful tool to the surname study. As of now, October 2010, it is still fairly new, so the number of people in the database at FTDNA who have done the test-in other words the pool of potential matches-probably isn't today near where it will be as more people pile in. That's one reason I have been waiting to do it, along with being so busy with the surname study that I fear I would not have time to pursue matches along other lines. But it does occur to me that of the people currently in the DNA proje! ct who stand the most chance of being related to your husband, it would be me (through my father), due to the geographic proximity and the fact that there is another John Bowe in his family tree. If your husband's Bowe line is related to mine, they should share some autosomal DNA and match each other in the database. The line of thinking here is that your John Chester Bowe's father may have had other children who stayed in the area. This test is also a bit more expensive than the Y chromosome test, so I don't usually recommend it for the surname study off the bat. But for someone with no male to test it is another option. If your husband is related to the Bowe family from west of Syracuse, then I can tell you a lot more about his family history in Ireland. There is another Bowe family from the area I have corresponded with, but they have not joined the DNA project is yet, so I don't know if they are related to me. If you are at all interested in your husband's surname line, you could search the FTDNA database and see if a project is set up for his surname. He could join that project with his Y-chromosome. Sincerely, Martha Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.