Surname Project for
Southard, Southworth, Suthers, Southward, Southern, Southwood,... and more
News! For those who have tested with certain other companies, Family Tree DNA continues to offer its special pricing. Contact your project administrator.
Ongoing! Be sure to visit our Results and Miscellaneous pages for the latest DNA findings and the Patriarchs page for new pedigrees.
Mission
A concerted effort is underway to determine the English origins of these and many more surnames. For example, did Constant and Thomas Southworth of Plymouth, Massachusetts truly descend from Gilbert, son of Hugh de Croft, who was given the Manor of Southworth? And was Thomas Southard who m. Annica Jansen (Van Salee) related to this family? The answer to this last question is a resounding NO, at least in the last one thousand years, as proven by DNA testing. How do some of the other spellings relate to these families, if at all? This is becoming very interesting, as can be seen in the Results tables on the following pages.
Project General Fund
Anyone who wishes to contribute to the project general fund to help encourage other testees who might have ties to the Southworth or Southard lines may do so by contacting one of the project administrators. The fund is administered by the project administrators who determine how and when monies are disbursed. However, we will honor any strings you attach.
One significant donation is made in memory of Owen Southard whose sister requests that it be used specifically for Y-DNA "testees who have a solid paper trail that would benefit the research from our ancestor's Constant and Thomas Southworth." Southworth men who either descend in a direct line from Constant or Thomas Southworth or represent their presumed ancestral line would be eligible.
Why Should You be Tested?
Reading the news, watching specials on Public Television, seeing the many articles popping up in all the major news magazines … Doesn’t it make you wonder how modern science, and DNA testing in particular, can help solve some of your genealogical puzzles? After spending years rummaging through courthouses, libraries, family papers, cemeteries and the internet, aren’t you ready to use the latest tool to find your roots, once and for all?
Surname DNA testing is the newest tool available to genealogists. These tests help genealogists verify their paternal ancestry (father's father's father, etc.) in a quick and easy way. It saves time, prevents mistakes, and provides invaluable data that can be obtained in no other way. The only cost is for the testing itself. We project administrators are volunteers who hope to gain knowledge about our own heritage. We receive no compensation or incentives from Family Tree DNA or any other entity. Note that only a male with any of the subject surnames may participate but, if you have Southard or Southworth ancestry, you can be represented by even a distant cousin whose name is Southard, Southworth or similar.
How does it work? Scientists mapping the human genome in 2000 found it consisted of about 3 billion pairs of DNA chemicals or "letters," and that those letters were 99.9 percent similar from one person to the next. It's within that 0.1 percent difference that the science of genetic genealogy was born. Just like notations in an old Bible or census records, family history is recorded in our genes. A father's Y chromosome DNA is passed down virtually unchanged to his sons while mothers pass down their mitochondrial DNA to their sons and daughters. While MtDNA can help us find our earliest roots, long before surnames came into existence, it is the Y-DNA that only males carry that holds the secret for genealogical purposes. And Ladies, don’t feel left out. Just find a male cousin – even a distant one – and he can represent your line.
As a Southard descendant and Southworth cousin who has done my share of “rummaging,” I decided to make science work for me and all the other Southard, Southworth, etc., researchers out there who have “holes” in their paper trail or want to extend their research to:
* Eliminate or confirm relationships.
* Focus research towards related families.
* Direct research into a geographical area.
* Direct research into a specific timeframe.
* Establish country or region of origin.
* Confirm variant surnames are the same family.
* Learn about our family's pre-surname migration.
* Strengthen weak paper trails.
* Avoid pursuing false connections.
About DNA Testing
Few of us are entirely comfortable with the genealogical research we and others before us have done. Virtually all our findings have words like “probably,” “could,” “may,” “perhaps,” and “assuming” liberally scattered throughout. Let’s get to the bottom line. We’ve exhausted all the traditional research tools. It’s time to let a simple, painless DNA test provide the answers. The cost is a few tanksful of gas or probably no more than a research trip to a nearby town. Think about gas, tolls, parking fees, copying costs, meals, possibly an overnight stay – all sometimes yielding little or no new information. Instead, you could simply swab the inside of your cheek a few times in the comfort of your home. Then sit back and wait about six weeks. You will receive a handsome certificate displaying your genetic profile, a series of numbers that are meaningless by themselves. But they hold the key to your paternal ancestry and, when matched against the profiles of others, can yield information that can be obtained in no other way. Those numbers will be compared against the ever-growing database at Family Tree DNA and at other universal databases and you will likely find other testees whose results match yours, if not immediately then in future years. You will be notified as new matches occur.
About Results
As you can see on the Results page at this website, we have so far identified several probable lines. Other projects teach us that for some participants, the results are not surprising because the traditional genealogies have pointed to them all along, but now the proof is indisputable. For others, the results suggest some clear research avenues to pursue. For still others, there may be a nonpaternal event in some distant generation, such as an unknown adoption, and there may be an opportunity to find a heretofore unsuspected genealogy. Or no clear match emerges, in which case the testee can expect a future match as more men are tested.
This Family Project can:
1. Help researchers on common or related families work together to find their common heritage (See the Patriarch Page)
2. Identify the DNA of the ancestor families and compile them and their lost branches into distinct genetic lineages through DNA matches.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please see the FAQ tab, above.
Disclaimer, Conditions and Agreement
The Southworth-Southard Surname DNA Project or its project administrators have no commercial affiliation with any profit-making organization and receive no compensation for services or expenses involved with the project. This website is maintained for posting DNA results and pedigrees of participants who choose to make their information available.
Although the Project offers discounts at FTDNA, that by no means suggests a business partnership or other relationship between the Project and the Laboratory. All funds are payable only and directly to the Laboratory. The Project will not be the recipient or steward of any DNA samples and has no responsibility for their care, handling or return to participant, nor duty to act on behalf of a Participant in mediation of any dispute between the Participant and the Laboratory.
While a match between two participants may suggest that they share a common male ancestor, it will not identify the specific ancestor and there is no guarantee that every participant will match anyone in this project or in any public database.
By participation in the project, the participant agrees to these conditions.
Useful Links:
DNA Testing Overview: DNA 101
World Families Network website: General Discussion
Family Tree DNA websites:
Family Tree DNA Southworth-Southard Home Page
Websites hosted by line leaders on Patriarchs page:
To submit comments, questions, corrections or additions, or if you have already tested elsewhere, please contact the project administrator: Doris Wheeler
Click here to order a DNA test now from Family Tree DNA
