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Gwartney atDNA Project

See also Gwartney / Gwaltney Family History

As more of our family members take autosomal (atDNA) tests, the results become more difficult and time-consuming to track. This project is intended to reduce duplicated effort - and share our findings. All corrections (and there will be many) and suggestions for improvement are appreciated:

Gwartney Family History

Unlike most families, it appears that all (or almost all) Gwartneys in America descend from a single Welsh family that immigrated to Surry County Virginia in the early-mid 1600s. Spellings include Gwaltney, Gualtney, Gortney and more - but we all appear to descend from Thomas Gwaltney (1613-1666). Read more about our Gwartney family history.

Project Goals

The atDNA project will initially focus on descendents of Micajah Gwartney (1750-1818), Thomas's third-great-grandson. It may eventually expand to earlier generations if there is sufficient interest and participation.

The primary project goals are to:

  • Combine atDNA testing and traditional genealogical research to identify the primary Gwartney ancestral lines in America.
  • Collect and share family photos and stories with all Gwartney descendants.

Potential Difficulties

As the Gwartney family migrated west, they intermarried with a number of families across multiple generations. This may lead to false conclusions, as atDNA matches that appear to be to Gwaltneys may instead be to descendants of other lines of the Albin, Bruce, Wright, or several other families. This won't usually be a problem, but is something to watch.

Our Gwartney Connections

Kevin, Kevin's father, three of his aunts, and two of his father's first cousins (siblings) have posted their atDNA results - and are all grandchildren of Grace Gwartney (1889-1983). Many Gwartneys match to one or more of us (for privacy reasons, I obscure parts of the names of all living relatives other than myself):

  • Kevin Ireland
  • GI - Kevin Ireland
  • SI - S...Ireland
  • SM - S...McFadden
  • GP - D...Prichard
  • RB - dennieb...123 (two tests; same person)
  • DB - consciousc...101

How You Can Help

Please contribute to this project however you can:

  • Email family stories that can be shared publicly (names and places of living people will never be posted)
  • Send corrections to information presented here
  • Send usernames of your Gwartney-ancestor atDNA matches - especially members of Gwartney DNA Circles on Ancestry.com
  • Update your Ancestry tree to link your family back to Micajah and Elizabeth (if not already connected to them)
  • Provide feedback on ways to make this information more helpful to you
  • Create a free account at Gedmatch.com and upload your atDNA test results there.

Gwartney Family Lines - atDNA Matched

Nothing in genealogy research is ever 100% accurate (especially when working with multiple entangled family lines), but we're reasonably confident that we've correctly matched these families. See "Susan" exception.

Micajah Gwartney (1750-1818) Descendants

Micajah and his wife Elizabeth McGuffy (1750-1830) had perhaps five sons and five daughters, with many hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of living descendants. During the initial phase of this project, we're tracking descendants of four of their sons and one daughter. We expect to add more lines as we go forward.

Note: Susan L Gwartney (1808-1885) Descendants

Most Ancestry trees say that Susan is the daughter of Micajah Gwartney (1750-1818) and Elizabeth McGuffy (1750-1830). Since not many children are born to 58 year old mothers, I'm going to assume that that information is wrong. One of our research goals will be to try to identify her parents.

After clicking the image below, it will open in a new browser tab. Click on the new image to zoom in and then scroll to the far left.

 


 


Are we related?

Here are the GEDmatch Kit #s for my father and mother:

GI: A909282
CL: A216073


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