This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Lawson Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/XeB.2ACE/3198.1.1.1.1.1.1.2 Message Board Post: This emphasizes the importance of the Lawson DNA study. We know from that study that Russell Lawson and John Lawson were likely from the same line. But, one of the two--I don't remember which one--doesn't have the 25 or 37 marker test, so we can't be sure of how closely they were related. To give you an example of what I mean, my real male line is Williams. I had a perfect match on the 12 marker test, but the 25 marker test had two mutations which suggests that we were not closer than an ancestor 300 years in the past. Another problem with John Lawson is that we don't know who he really was. I think that the connection to Emanuel Lawson is a good model to use right now, but truthfully there isn't any real documentation to support it. We need "proven" descendents of Thomas Lawson to confirm Russell's relationship to him--proven in the sense that the ancestor was living with his father in 1850 or there is a document that states who his father was. Once we have that,! we can say for sure who John and Russell belonged to.