Dear Brown/Browne/Braun/Brun Researchers: The Brown & Allied Surnames DNA Study continues to expand. Our contractor, Family Tree DNA of Houston TX, has now sent kits to 85 of our participants, of whom 71 have now returned their kits to the lab. If we continue to grow at this rate, the project will soon reach our goal of becoming the genealogy community's largest DNA surname study. To make it happen, we sincerely welcome the help of all genealogy enthusiasts in the "extended" Brown, Browne, Braun, Broun, and Brun families -- not to mention people who are researching other related surnames such as Browning, Brownell, and so forth. (FYI, there are now more than 600 DNA-based surname studies underway worldwide. The first project is believed to have been the Mumma-surname study -- which only started in April 2000. So it's clear that the entire field of DNA genealogy has undergone truly impressive growth in the last few years.) Our project has two main goals: (1) To use DNA test results for bringing together researchers whose families share a common Brown, Browne, Braun or "related-surname" ancestry, especially in cases where researchers have been unaware of relationships between their lines; and (2) to allow researchers who think their lines might be related to confirm (or refute) their possible kinship, by means of first-rate, professionally responsible DNA science. Like all surname studies, our project relies upon tests of the Y chromosome. This DNA is carried only by males, and it is passed down from father to son with little or no change over hundreds of years. Therefore, uniquely among all known types of DNA, the Y chromosome "tracks" surnames very closely. The upshot is that all test participants in our project are males who descend (or are thought to descend) in an unbroken male-to-male line from a male ancestor who carried the surname Brown, Browne, Braun, Brun or a common variation thereof. (Note: Women do not carry the Y chromosome, nor do they influence the Y-DNA "signatures" of their offspring. Therefore, given the present state of DNA science, women cannot be test participants in any surname study. Many women do participate very actively in our study and other surname projects, however, by recruiting male relatives for testing. And women genealogists have also been active in starting and managing a number of DNA surname studies.) So far we've identified 50+ separate, unrelated Brown lines from North America, plus one from Australia. We hope eventually to enlist participants from Europe -- so if you have ideas on recruiting same, please let us know. Our project's web site, which we invite you to visit, is at: http://www.questgenealogy.com/dna-brown.htm And if you have questions about our research that aren't answered by the web site, please don't hesitate to contact me for more information. Finally, your comments and suggestions are always welcome! Best regards, Jim Brown (James Armistead Brown, Jr.) Project Co-Administrator Brown & Allied Surnames DNA Study