My earliest proven ancestor is John Guthrie - baptized in Belfast in 1828. I have a copy of his baptismal certificate. He and his brothers came to the US and lived in New Orleans. "Exhibits that attract attention, engage the senses, and compel your clients and prospects to STOP" Certified by WBEA as a Woman Owned Business Peggy Swords Excalibur Exhibits 7120 Brittmoore, Ste. 430 Houston, TX  77041 Tel:  +1.713.856.8853 Fax: +1.713.856.8854 Mobile: +1.281.830.2172 Excalibur Exhibits, A Swords Company, conducts all business transactions in accordance with its terms and conditions. Use of our services constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions. A copy of these is available upon request or can be obtained from our website www.excaliburexhibits.com. -----Original Message----- From: Larry J. Guthrie [mailto:lguthrie@brightok.net] Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2005 8:59 PM To: GUTHRIE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [GUTHRIE] Brick Walls As I look at the information from each of you sending in your earliest proven ancestor I can see that many of you can trace your ancestor back to Mr. Brick Wall Guthrie. And many of you have been staring at his ugly face for many years. Right now there are 10 Guthrie's that have submitted their DNA to be tested. There have been some success with the results. Not all of the information was what we wanted, but it is still useful. Lem and I may have hit a home run. We'll see when the results from his 25 marker test come back. Now I think I understand the reluctance of many of you to find a proper donor and get his DNA tested. It is pricey for one thing. I no longer think it does any good to get the 12 marker test done. The 25 marker test and preferability the 37 marker test needs to be ordered. Another reason is the low number of Guthrie DNA tests done to date. There may not be anyone appropriate for you to compare your donors test results. Well we need for 8 or 10 of you to stick your neck and your wallet out and go ahead and find a donor and pay for their test. I believe once we reach 20 donors many of those brick walls are going to start coming down. We may never know some of the intermediate generations, but if enough folks are tested we are going to start finding some common ancestors in this country. An example of this. If Lem's 25 marker test comes back a complete match to my dna we'll be as certain as is possible that our common ancestor is John of the John and Mary Shay Guthrie marriage. But Lem has a couple of generations between his earliest proven ancestor(with paper) and John. And I may never know whether my Nathaniel is a son or grandson of Garrett. I'll send an application for a test kit to any that want one. Larry lguthrie@brightok.net ============================== Search Family and Local Histories for stories about your family and the areas they lived. Over 85 million names added in the last 12 months. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13966/rd.ashx