Why You Should Post your Paternal Line

Posting your Paternal Line is one of the most important things you can do you when you test your yDNA and belong to a surname project. Here is why:

1. This information is indexed by search engines, you miss the chance of having another family researcher stumble across your line. They may have information you don't have on your family!

2. Promotes the fact that there are many unrelated men with the same surname. It can help distinguish different families that might have lived in the same County, Township or Shire.

3. Encourages others to get involved with the project through testing to see if their research is a match to a posted Paternal line. i.e., brings in new project members.

4. Helps bring about a sense of community within the project. If you show interest in the project, others will too.

Become involved, instructions on posting your Paternal Lineage

Information about mtDNA Testing

mtDNA is used to test your mother's mother's ... mother's maternal ancestry.  It is difficult to use for genealogy, as the surname is changing every generation, but there are scattered reports of paper trail connections being made with mtDNA.  For information, see our mtDNA page.  

We encourage everyone who has been mtDNA tested to join their mtDNA haplogroup project.  See our mtDNA Haplogroup Projects page for more information.  

If you are seeking information on your deep ancestry (1000s and 10,000s of years ago) the standard, $99 mtDNA test should be sufficient.  (This test is sometimes called HVR1.)

If you wish to use your mtDNA result to confirm a maternal ancestry (you and another person share a common maternal ancestor), then you will gain by taking the mtDNA Plus test which costs $149 (This test is sometimes called HVR1 + HVR2).

If you wish to test your entire mtDNA sequence, then you’ll want the mtDNA Full Sequence test, which costs $449.   (FTDNA calls this test “Mega.")  FTDNA suggests this for anyone who doesn’t wish to be upgrading when they need more info – as this will give you the entire sequence.

An upgrade from mtDNA to mtDNA Plus is $75 and the upgrade from mtDNA to Mega is $460, while the upgrade from mtDNA Plus to Mega is $450.

Click here to place an order for a DNA test at Family Tree DNA

Meanings of the Surnames Pritchard and Pritchett

The meaning of the Pritchard Surname is patronymic, son of Richard. This is from the Anglicized form of the Welsh ap Rhisiart which meant ‘son of Richard’.

The meaning of the Pritchett Surname is both patronymic and metonymic. As with Pritchard, it was an Anglicized form of Welsh ap Rhisiart ‘son of Richard’. The other form of origin comes from the English, a diminutive of Middle English prik(e), prich ‘point’, ‘prick’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a maker or user of any of various pointed instruments, or a nickname for a tall, thin man.

PRITCHETT Surname Facts:

PRITCHARD Surname Facts: