Brom*, Broom*, Brum*, I have been getting good questions. Let me share one with you all so I don't have to write separate answers for each list, as people from each list ask similar questions. On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 00:56:28 EDT [email protected] writes: >I am a Brumfield descendent through the female >line (my mother and her mother). Is this of any >use to me, or to others? > >John >San Diego John of San Diego California, Let me draw a tree showing your potential closest kin -- "potential" in the sense that there might be males carrying the Brumfield surname (& Y chromosome) who are as close of kin as shown below. Your Great grandpa Brumfield _____________|_____________ | | Grandma Brumfield your Great uncle Brumfield | | your mom your 1st cousin* once removed B'field | | you your 2nd cousin* Brumfield | your 2nd cousin* once removed B'field | ... * "cousin*" means male cousin * "cousin* Brumfield" means male cousin carrying the Brumfield surname. The testee has to be living & I suppose your Gt. Grandpa Brumfield is dead & maybe the great uncles who are carrying the surname? That leaves you with testing your mom's male maternal 1st cousins or their male kids (or grandkids) carrying the surname. Not having any brothers or living maternal uncles, my maternal 1st cousins were my closest male kin carrying the Broom surname. Your closest kin is 2nd cousins -- just one step more distant than my closest Brooms. In fact I plan to get a 2nd cousin to submit DNA for the Killian DNA project. Killian is my mom's mom's maiden surname which puts me in the same situation for Killian that you are in for Brumfield. You ask "Is this of any use to" you. 1) Do you know where your Brumfields came from in England? If your close cousin's DNA exactly matches a Brumfield (or Brom* or Broom*) in England & that Englishman knows his line back to the 1600s, you know to check his ancestral parish for your earliest known American ancestor. 2) If your cousin's DNA matches some American Brumfield whose early American ancestry is in another county & state than yours, you know that your early American Brumfield ancestry might be in that county. 3) On the other hand, if you don't match some Brumfields, you know that you do not need to look for your Brumfield ancestors among the early records of their ancestral county. So, yes this of any use to you. Agreed? If any of you recommend a different company than Family Tree DNA (FT DNA), let me know now. -- James W. Green III 172 Agnew Road Winnsboro SC 29180 803-635-9236 ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!