A Lowe by Any Other Name

The results from my brother’s Y-DNA test were disappointing at best and confusing at worst.

Of the 178 total matches at all marker levels (from 12 upward), none were a close match. I’ve heard of people finding first and second cousins through DNA testing, but the best match was a distance of 4 at 67 markers -- that's four generations away. 

More significantly, there was only one match with the surname Lowe in a tree. How could that be? If the Y-chromosome is passed from father to son to son and so on, shouldn’t everyone with matching DNA have the same surname? After all, surnames are also passed from father to son. So where were all the Lowes?

First, with so few results in general (fewer than 200 is quite low I understand), it would seem that few people with DNA matching my brother had taken Y-DNA tests. As more people take tests, hopefully more matches will appear, but at the moment that’s a slim list.

Second, it would seem that people with the surname Lowe who had the same DNA as my brother were few or simply had not taken DNA tests.

And finally, the alternate names in the match list may mean that at least one ‘parental’ event may have happened at some point in the past to cause a surname diversion.

The ‘event’ options include:

• an illegitimate son who was given the mother’s surname rather than the father’s, and so the son's children (and all subsequent generations) carried his mother’s surname
• an adoption where a boy’s surname was changed to that of the adoptive parents, and that surname was passed along down the line
• a remarriage of a mother where her son from a previous husband took the surname of her second husband and that name went on to the stepson's offspring

There may be other possibilities for the surname differences, such as a deliberate or accidental change of name, but the parental events listed above are more likely. But at this point there is no way to know.

The most common surname in the match list was Lindsay or Lindsey appearing 15 times. The next was Rains/Raines/Ranes at 12. Then there were the Murrays, appearing 10 times, and this surname showed the closest genetic match. There were nine matches named Morrow. Stanley/Standley appeared five times. Appearing four times were Cameron, Hamilton, Scott, Todd and Woody. All the rest appeared three or fewer times, but here is a sampling of the names: Abderdeen, Bailey, Barney, Benbow, Bennett, Borchelt, Broadbent, Brown, Caswell/Carswell, Cecil, Cole, Colston, Congleton, Conklin, Cooper, Cotton, Curran, Dabney, Lyons, Moore, Mullins, Nettles, Norris, Norwood, Ormsby/Ormsbee, Pasley, Peters, Phillips, Pierson, Pullin, Rasmussen, Slone, Terry, Williams, Wilson, and Wynniatt.

Many of these names are probably related so far back that connecting them to my family would be impossible, but nearly all are from Scotland (more on this in a future post). But some have potential based on genetic distance. The front runners currently are: Murray, Cotton, and Cameron.

Can I use this Y-DNA report to break through to ancestors in Scotland? Only future research will tell.