Brett, Congratulations on the results. Regarding FTDNA did you subsequently upgrade to higher number of STR's or are you still at 37 STR markers? As you mention Ward is an "occupational name" in an Irish context (son of the Poet). "Bh" is prononuced as W/V in Irish, thence the Irish pronunciation of Bháird angliscation to Ward. Here's what Woulfe had in his 1923 book: -- Mac an BHÁIRD—VII<http://www.libraryireland.com/names/synopsis-types-surnames.php>—MacAward, MacWard, Ward; 'son of the bard' (Irish 'bárd'); a very common surname; found in every county in Ireland, but especially in Donegal, Galway and Dublin. Three families of the name are known to history: (1) Mac an Bháird of Tirconnell, who were bards to the O'Donnells; (2) Mac an Bháird of Ui Maine <http://www.libraryireland.com/names/irishclans/ui-maine.php>, who were bards to the O'Kellys, and were seated at Muine Chasain and Ballymacward; and (3) Mac an Bháird of Oriel. -- Regards -Paul (DF41+) On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Brett Ward <bhward@hotmail.com> wrote: > Hello all, my name is Brett Ward and I reside in Sydney, Australia. > > Mac a Bhaird (being Ward pre anglicised) as many of you will appreciate is > an Irish occupational name (Bard, historian) and very old and reasonably > prolific throughout Ireland. I can trace my family to about 1800 in > Abington, County Limerick but the surname has its highest frequency in > traditional ancestral locations within Galway and Tyrone. Ward is also a > separate and unrelated English surname, but clearly causes much confusion. > > I have been watching DNA developments on this mailing list tentatively > ever since having 37 STR markers mapped. This led me to test with Britains > DNA (Ethnoancestry) a few years ago to ascertain that I was M222+. This > then led me to look into Irish Ward DNA results and I would suggest that > around 40-50% of Wards that I have seen are M222+. This may be little more > than random for descendants from those West and North Western areas within > Ireland. > > I have also recently just received my Chromo2 results from Britains DNA > and am awaiting the raw file to be uploaded. They have a genetic signature > page though that shows my 300 plus ‘positives’. > > Within Britains DNA tree, the lowest level I have achieved is S660, but I > have aspirations! I have had a look at some trees, such as that to be found > on the Kennedy website but do not seem to be able to find a lower level. > > As the song goes, where do I begin? Is there a useful guide somewhere for > me to come up to speed quickly or some websites that I should hit first? I > am very interested in pushing things along from a Ward angle. > > Thank you for reading and look forward to being a bit more active than the > last few years, but that won’t be difficult. > > Brett > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > DNA-R1B1C7-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message