Patti, Please tell us which tests each of the living people you mention, in your message, have taken. If all of the tests are for autosomal DNA, atDNA, then you need to have one direct line male descendant of each of the Purtell brothers yDNA tested. These men must have been born Purtells, and their line of descent cannot have been interrupted by a daughter. If the three men match one another within acceptable limits, they are at least related. They could be brothers or cousins. What kind of analysis have you done on the way they named their children? Is part of the problem that there are no records before 1800? Marleen Van Horne -- When the people, who made the music of your youth, begin dying of old age, you know that you, too, are old.