New DNA tests for the Swinfields?

Over the past decade, I have been employing DNA testing in an attempt to determine if all Swinfields are ultimately related. If they are, their family trees could be traced back to one man who chose to use that hereditary surname and pass it on to his sons, daughters and their descendents. As it is the custom for women to take the surname of their husband at marriage, Swinfield would only have passed down male lines or on occasions when women, who were either single or married, had issue out of wedlock.

To date, the male line has been the most useful path to follow through the family trees to try to answer that question. Men inherit their surname from their father and keep it throughout their whole lifetime unless they change it for reason of inheritance or when they become a celebrity. In the same way, they also inherit their Y-chromosome from their father. That is the one part of the DNA which determines that a foetus will become male. By testing the Y-chromosome of selected living male Swinfields, it would appear likely that four of the five major Swinfield lineages, which have been tested to date, do have an almost identical form. That would strongly suggest that there was indeed only one ultimate male ancestor of all present-day Swinfields who would have lived in the 13th century and chose to use the surname. That may have been to mark where he lived at that time. There are several place names in England which are similar to Swin(g)field, notably in the counties of Kent and Staffordshire.

Now we have another type of DNA test which we can apply across all ancestral lines of our family trees. Irrespective of which of our 16 great-great-grandparents was a Swinfield, we may have inherited a discernible proportion of his or her autosomal DNA. The autosomes are all the other 44 chromosomes that we receive from our two parents in addition to our sex chromosomes (which are termed X and Y). We receive a random assortment of such chromosomes through the ancestral lines from our forebears. However, in addition, the autosomes are not passed on intact but also undergo what is called recombination, where they can interchange segments of DNA with their "pair". Consequently, siblings and cousins will inherit a different assortment of DNA from their common great-great-grandparents. Some may have lots of Swinfield DNA while others will have so little that it cannot be measured.

Autosomal DNA testing for genetic genealogy is a powerful tool in the family historian's armoury. Because of the "dilution" of DNA from one ancestral line through the generations, it can only be used over about the past five or six generations to seek or compare 4th or, at the most, 5th cousins. We can now look at both the male and female lines of our Swinfield family trees. Even if was your mother's father's mother who was a Swinfield by birth, and she received half of that from her own Swinfield parent, we may be able to detect that element of her autosomal DNA in you!

At present, only three representatives of two of the legitimate (as far as we know!) Swinfield lines have tested. Those are from families 5D and 5F. Remember that my line has not inherited any Swinfield DNA due to the "non paternity event" of 1840. My father, myself and those in our branch of the tree, as far out as our 2nd and 3rd cousins, have no Swinfield DNA!

Now would be a great time to test other Swinfields across the major family trees. An autosomal test, such as that provided by AncestryDNA, is best done on the most senior member of each branch, as they will have inherited more Swinfield DNA than their issue. That person, who could be of either sex, would preferably have a father or mother who was a Swinfield by birth. The test kit can be purchased for about £70 (GBP) (when they are on offer) and your DNA will remain as a legacy to your children and descendants after you have gone. We can link your test result to an online tree and then look for DNA matches to learn more about your relations.    

                                 

Who will put themself forward?
 If you would be interested in finding out more or can recommend a family member 
 who will take a test, contact me by e-mail at geoff@gsgs.co.uk or via Facebook.