Betty, While a kinship might actually exist, you need to keep in mind the possibility of "accidental" matches between essentially unrelated persons, especially for us R1b's. About half of Western European males fit into haplogroup R1b, with especially high concentrations in Scotland and Wales. With a population size that large, the possibility of accidental matches is real. Remember that mutations are random events. If mutations can cause lines to diverge over generations, they can also cause divergent lines to converge. I recently had my yDNA profiled, and I too found several exact matches (24 of 24) with people of difference surnames and little or no geographical congruence. My possible explanations are: 1. We do in fact share a common male ancestor, but he goes back to before the use of surnames. My ancestor was the son of Andrew and his descendents took the name Anderson. The other line descended from Andrew's brother Thomas, and they took the name Thomason. 2. Our most recent male ancestor lived 10,000 years ago; hence, we are essentially not related in any meaningful sense of the word. Over many generations, our lines accumulated different mutations, and their yDNA profiles might have been quite different at one point. But strictly by random chance, the progression of mutation ceased to cause a divergence but caused our Y chromosomes to become more similar. So, today, we have identical yDNA profiles by chance alone. That's my take on the situation. Joe Anderson ----Original Message Follows---- From: "Betty A. Pace" <bapace2@juno.com> To: PACE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [PACE-L] Re TEDFORD LINE -- : Message from a ysearch user Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 11:04:43 -0400 My brother took the Pace DNA test. He recently received the following message regarding the DNA project--showing a Tedford tie. I know of no Tedford connection to the Paces. I don't see how it could be in the male line of Paces. Does anyone know of such a link? We think we are linked to Richard I through John & Sarah Burge PACE. Betty Pace --------- Forwarded message ---------- william.g.tilford@boeing.com wrote: > Dear David J. Pace, > > A Ysearch user has sent you a message regarding your Ysearch account. > Your User ID: M8PV7 > Your Last Name: Pace > > We have not disclosed your email address to the sender. Should you wish to > reply to this user, simply click Reply in your email program and an email > will automatically be addressed to the sender. The message contents > follow: > > Name: william g tilford jr > Email: william.g.tilford@boeing.com > Message: you have the same markers as the tedford project, did your > ancesters co from scotland (we are scotch irish) wonder where our > connection is. how far back did our paths cross. > > This email was sent to davidjpace@yahoo.com > > ==== PACE Mailing List ==== Be sure to check the Pace Family Genealogy Forum at http://genforum.com/pace/ and the Pace Network at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pace