Sorry to contradict, but under UK, USA and most Commonwealth law, it is his correct surname as it was the surname of his mother at the time of his birth. Same as one of my relatives is Taylor, although his "father" was away at war for over a year before he was born. Your name is what it is. Who your ancestors are may well be other than you think. And, re DNA testing in the UK, I for one will not be having it done as the life insurance companies are talking about asking "have you ever had a DNA test done" and then wanting the results to see if you have any chance of inherited risk factors, to allow them to increase your premiums. When they start doing that I want to be able to say no. Happy new year Steve On 01/01/2013 05:27, Julie Webb wrote: > My husband's surname is the > maiden name of his paternal grandmother 'Webb' even though we know that this > is not his correct surname, both he, his father and his children all bear > this name including me as his wife. >

Dear Steve There is nothing to contradict. Of course our surname is 'Webb' under law, you are missing the point entirely, we are not taking about 'legalities' when doing Family Tree DNA studies. The whole object of doing male Y DNA studies is the fact that we assume the surname is passed from father to son, as is the Y chromosome each generation. As a scientist and genealogical anthropologist, the origin of the surname is of great interest to me. We all know that in a perfect world the Y DNA of the male would be handed down with very little mutation for generations and as our historical notes tell us the surname is also handed down, of course things come unstuck when there has been some female 'dalliances' along the way. The genetic explanations are too long to discuss in this forum, suffice to say that my husband's DNA matches with a whole lot of men whose surname is Stewart and when looking at the MRA connection, this came about 370 years ago. Re- DNA testing for genealogy, at no time are inherited biological markers tested or any others that may have a medical implication, the results are taken from parts of the chromosomes that would have no bearing on insurance, this is completely different to having a paternity test DNA or other types of genetic studies. Hope this clarifies the situation, I am happy to discuss genetics with any subscribers privately. Cheers and Happy New year to all Julie Sorry to contradict, but under UK, USA and most Commonwealth law, it is his correct surname as it was the surname of his mother at the time of his birth. And, re DNA testing in the UK, I for one will not be having it done as the life insurance companies are talking about asking "have you ever had a DNA test done" and then wanting the results to see if you have any chance of inherited risk factors, to allow them to increase your premiums. On 01/01/2013 05:27, Julie Webb wrote: > My husband's surname is the > maiden name of his paternal grandmother 'Webb' even though we know > that this is not his correct surname, both he, his father and his > children all bear this name including me as his wife.