Hello Fellow Brown Researchers! I'm pleased to report that the Brown/Browne/Braun DNA Study has just passed another noteworthy milestone, with 550 sets of members' DNA results now posted! The Brown Study is a non-profit, volunteer activity whose main goals are (1) to lend technical support for amateur genealogists who want to use DNA analysis for research on various Brown families and (2) to encourage more and more genealogical DNA tests by men carrying the Brown surname or a variant (Browne, Braun, Browning, etc.). As you may be aware, females don't carry the type of DNA that may be used for surname tracing. But many women are very active in the Brown DNA Study as sponsors of tests by their Brown-surnamed male relatives. There are no costs and no other obligations for membership in the Brown project, except that if you do take a genealogical DNA test, we ask permission to list your DNA numbers at our website. The project has recently had a true growth spurt -- meaning among other things that we can now identify some 107 "relationship groups." These groups are comprised of members whose matches seem potentially useful for genealogical research. They're listed here: http://brownsociety.org/browndna/groupresults.html In the meantime, a total of 176 members are still waiting for their first matches and are listed here: http://www.brownsociety.org/browndna/unique.html These numbers, 107 plus 176, mean the Brown DNA Study has now identified 283 biologically distinct family lines for the Brown surname or a variant (Browne, Browning, etc.). I don't know about you, but I'm surprised and intrigued by this level of diversity for our surname. Who wudda thunk? When it comes specifically to genealogical data, the "earliest know Brown ancestors" of our members are presented here: http://brownsociety.org/browndna/earliestancestorsgeographic.html (If you do decide to join the project, it's not mandatory that you submit such information. But we certainly hope you'll do so!) In other project news, there's a new feature at our website whereby we now give DNA results for several non-member "Anonymous Browns." These non-members are men who have already tested with our contractor, Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) and have matches with one or more of our members. We currently show results for 13 such non-members, and the number will grow as FTDNA's computers uncover more matches. Of course, we certainly hope to recruit these men sooner or later as regular project members! The addition of these non-members to our Group Results page means we now have a grand total of 563 sets of results posted to our website. Among this total, 387 test participants are in our 107 relationship groups -- giving us a current match rate of about 68%. Another project-related statistic is that 22 members listed at our website have been tested by firms other than FTDNA. We're more than happy to have these chaps with us! So if you or one of your relatives has already been tested by Ancestry.com, Relative Genetics or another outfit, please be assured that our project welcomes such participants, even though their DNA numbers aren't fully compatible with results for the overwhelming majority of Browns who have been tested. If you'd like more information about the Brown project or about DNA genealogy in general, please don't hesitate to get in touch. I'm here to help! Best regards, Jim Brown (James Armistead Brown, Jr.) Volunteer Project Administrator Brown/Browne/Braun DNA Study DNAforBrowns@aol.com