THOMAS Surname DNA Study

THOMAS DNA Project Home Page

Are you related to this group of Thomas brothers?

Status as of 11 August, 2008:
Kits Ordered: Kits Returned: Data Posted: Match Groups:	142 140 139 18
3 new Test Results added!

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Our Objective

As with other surname projects, the objectives of the Thomas group are to find connections between Thomas lines and to hopefully determine the countries of origin of these various families. With the use of documented family trees and good paper trails, we hope to continue our genealogical research beyond what we currently know. Ultimately, by sharing our results and research we believe we might better focus our research efforts.

Project Scope

The scope of our project is all Thomas males. The early members of our group are living in the U.S.A., however we welcome and encourage those beyond the U.S.A. to join as we believe country boundaries do not apply in the search for ancestral knowledge. Many of us strive to know where our ancestors first lived. The more widespread our database, the more we will all learn. The more we learn, the more we hope to share and help each other.

Our Goals

Our goals are not expected to be hard and fast. We fully expect these to change as our knowledge grows and as each participant asks a new question. Below are just a few of the submitted objectives we have set for our project results:

"The hope is that the project will link us to another family and location, enabling me to work from both directions, present and past, with conventional genealogy to extend our line."
"To gain further directive for searching my Thomas lineage - in specific, the ancestors of Benjamin S. Thomas."
"To verify my linkage back to a Peter Thomas coming with Gerhard Thomas from Germany to Berks Co., PA [USA] in 1754."
"To help others who are trying to connect to my line."
"To direct future research on George Thomas to a location where I might uncover more information on his early years and his parentage, and to find any ties that might exist between the East Tennessee [USA] Thomas families."
To participate "...because the eldest in our family have always passed along the information that we were Welsh... and, I have the feeling we may possibly descend from Germans..."

Who can participate?

Anyone who is interested. Well, at least anyone can help. You must be a male with direct THOMAS lineage to be tested, since this project is based on Y-Chromosome DNA tests. However, there are other ways to participate...

Help spread the word and identify potential candidates for testing
Sponsor testing for candidates with limited income or those not willing to pay (but are needed to validate a family line)
Provide additional pedigree information within the tested family lines

How will this be accomplished?

We have selected FamilyTreeDNA to be the testing service used by this project. A surname project has been established with them, with Bonnie Thomas Chaffin serving as the Group Administrator. Individual test participants are responsible for the purchase of a DNA test kit from FamilyTreeDNA. The Y-DNA25: 25 Marker Test (which is only available to surname project participants) provides accurate linkage information (discounted cost of $148 plus s/h). However, if you believe you share a paternal ancestor with persons already participating in the study, you might consider the Y-DNA37: 37 Marker Test ($189 plus s/h) for even more accurate results (provided the other participants you are attempting to match have at least 37 markers tested). The new Y-DNA67: 67 Marker Test ($269 plus s/h) is mostly useful in special situations where maximum accuracy is needed. For those wishing to make the lowest initial investment in the testing, the Y-DNA12: 12 Marker Test provides a crude determination of possible shared ancestry, and could always be refined later with additional markers (from the original test sample) if the 12 markers match others in a particular family line. A full set of kit and upgrade prices at rates discounted for surname studies is available here. If you don't match up with others in the first 12 or 25 markers, no sense worrying about refining the results. On the other hand, those people who have exact matches with others might wish to explore the additional precision the upgrade would provide.

Instructions on obtaining the kit are provided by the Group Administrator after you join the project (see button below). Using the test kit, the participant scrapes the inside of their cheek with two swab-like scrapers, and then inserts the scrapers into tubes with fluid designed to arrest bacteria growth. They are sent back to FamilyTreeDNA for analysis. In 4 to 6 weeks, results will be mailed to the participant, and to the Group Administrator. There are options for having notices sent from FamilyTreeDNA to other individuals when the DNA results match.

After the results are received by the Group Administrator, they will be posted (with the participants permission) on this web site, along with interpretative analysis. For the project to be credible, several people within each line will need to be tested to validate the DNA markers for the line.