The results of my Y-DNA test are in and have revealed my paternal lineage back to “Adam” in Africa. I’ve been assigned to the haplogroup “I-M253”. My greatest great grandfather likely sprung from northern France according to FamilyTreeDNA.com or Denmark according to other sites. The “I” males who came up out of Africa were responsible for “repopulating Europe after the first Ice Age”. That sounds like a big job. My “M253” splinter branch – which came about 3,000 to 7,000 years ago sayeth various scientists – eventually migrated further north into Scandinavia and onto the shores of eastern Britain. Essentially, I am a French-Anglo Viking.

Matches. Since this is the third test of this type I’ve taken, nothing much surprises me any more when it comes to seeing my matches for the first time. I had hoped to see the surname “Trantham” among my male Y-DNA cousins who’ve been tested and I was not disappointed. All Americans, the test predicted that our common ancestor is most likely 8 generations between us. That makes sense given that each of us cited “Martin Trantham” who likely came to America about 1690 as our most distant male ancestor and the source of our surname. There’s one exception among them which is a bit perplexing and exciting. The test indicates our common “Trantham” ancestor is further back – 12 generations or more.

Other surnames appeared on the list as well. Lots of them, from across 3 continents. Besides “Trantham”, the most common surnames that appear are “Burchett” and “Roy” (and a “Ray”). There’s even a “Stafford” thrown into the mix, possibly derived from “Staffordshire” where “Trentham” is located.

My “Roy” cousins identified “Antoine Roi dit Desjardins” as their most distant male ancestor. I “Googled” him and discovered he was born in France (naturally) in 1635. He was an early Canadian settler whose adulterous ways caused his early demise. It appears his male Canadian descendants dropped “dit Desjardins” and opted to go with just “Roy”. Meanwhile, back in France, Antoine’s male cousins/nephews did the opposite in favor of “Desjardin”.

So I thought this was the end of my DNA-testing road until one of my newfound “I-M253” male cousins informed me that I now needed to have my “SNPs” tested to truly understand my ancient “I-M253” male ancestors. There are about 14,000 of these little “SNP” critters and apparently they’ll reveal whether the “Burchetts” or the “Roys” are more closely related. “Spit happens” where this is concerned.

Kenfolk: Tranthams (and Trenthams, Burchetts, Roys, Desjardins, Staffords, Paschals, Flemings, Bashkirs, etc.)
Relation: Purely genetic
Common ancestors: Great Grampy I-M253