For many years, members of the Adamthwaite mailing list have pondered on whether or not the different branches of the Adamthwaites all originate from families who lived at the same geographical location – Adamthwaite Farm in Ravenstonedale in Westmoreland, or whether, if we were able to see into the distant past, we should discover that all the branches descend from a person known as Adamthwaite. Certainly, all the earliest records point to there being two main families – one family group based in Ravenstonedale  in Westmorland and another family group less than 10 miles away across the county border in Sedbergh in the West Riding of Yorkshire, with a few scattered individuals further east in Yorkshire and one or two in the City of London.

In the first section of this website, you can see how we have reconstructed nine main family lines, and have been able to indicate how the vast majority of Adamthwaite individuals link in to these lines; and although we have recently demonstrated how two pairs of these lines link up, we just don’t have enough early paper records to find a connection between the others. DNA testing could prove or disprove some of our theories in constructing these lines, as well as helping to show whether or not more (or even all) of the lines are connected.

 The main objectives of the DNA Project are: to validate the construction of the existing nine lines of Adamthwaites, as set out on the Adamthwaite Archive to investigate possible links between the separate lines

You can read more about the advantages of DNA testing in genealogical research on Family Tree DNA’s website

Family Finder
Our DNA project is mainly based around yDNA testing - which is the type of DNA test traditionally used in Surname Projects. However, we know that a third of our Adamthwaite lines have 'daughtered out' (meaning although there are living descendants of these lines, there are no longer any male Adamthwaites who would be eligible to participate in the yDNA test programme).

So, we are experimenting with using a new autosomal DNA test called Family Finder, which can be taken by males and females, and will match results with any cousins within five generations. To date, we have just one pair of results, which has accurately matched my own results with those of a third cousin in my OLIVE Adamthwaite line. Our closest common ancestors are our shared 2x gt grandparents William Adamthwaite and Sarah Mason, who married in Brough, Westmorland in 1841.

I have therefore opened up the Adamthwaite Surname Project on Family Tree DNA to anyone taking a Family Finder test who has Adamthwaites in their ancestry. Because of the experimental nature of using type of test for a Surname project, I do not think it would be ethical to use our General Fund contributions to pay for the tests, but I can assure you that in my own case I am discovering new cousins on several branches of my ancestry - so it is something that some of you may wish to consider.

You can read more about the Family Finder test on a separate page below.

See the following pages to find our more about the Adamthwaite DNA project:

Designing our own Adamthwaite DNA project Background information on DNA Testing - how it can help our Adamthwaite research and answers to some common fears and misunderstandingsFamily Finder - some background information to this NEW type of DNA test, and how it can assist in our Adamthwaite DNA ProjectHow you can help including full details of the individual branches which still have living male Adamthwaites Funding the project Results