The Halsted DNA Project

As can be seen elsewhere on the Halsted Trust’s website, there appear to be three distinct areas where families of the name Halsted and its variants lived about 300 years ago.  These are Yorkshire & Lancashire, Cumbria and Sussex.  Essex may be another area of interest but that needs further investigation.

Did they once, hundreds of years ago, all descend from the same ancestors?  A project to use DNA to try to establish links between all these Halsted families or otherwise disprove the connection was started in earnest in late 2023.

If any two families are indeed connected then the descendants in the male line, i.e. normally those who today bear the Halsted surname or one of its variant spellings, of each family should be a Y-DNA match.  Note that a Y-DNA test looks only at a part of DNA that is passed from father to son.  Autosomal tests, such as those popular on Ancestry, are not directly useful for this objective (but what we can use it for may be subject of a future blog).

A Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) surname project for Halstead has existed for some years and many of the men in the project have taken a Y-DNA test.  It has become clear that there is one distinct group of about ten men who are definitely related.  Most have the right surname!  The common ancestor of each pair of men varies.

Within this group, known to be from Yorkshire/Lancashire, some already knew their ancestors a long way back and for others we were able to extend the limited knowledge that they had.  Some men in the project have the Halsted name but their precise connection to any known family tree has not yet made.  Some men do not have the Halsted name but do know they are of that paternal line (for example their grandmother had an affair with a male Halsted).

The rest of the men in the FTDNA surname project mostly fall into one of the following groups:

  • Have the Halsted name but do already know that their paternal line descends from a man of a different surname
  • Have the Halsted name and claim ancestry from Lancashire/Yorkshire but the DNA results suggest otherwise
  • Are alone in a group believed to be from Cumbria or Sussex but we await further testers to prove this
  • Others for whom we have no idea yet why they joined the project

Any male called Halsted (or one of its variant surnames) interested in helping us with this research project by taking a DNA test, free of charge, should contact dna@halsted.org.uk . I can then assess your suitability to receive a test kit.

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Hester has been a professional genealogist for ten years and is a Member of the Association of Genealogists & Researchers in Archives (AGRA). She specialises in genetic genealogy, which usually means applying DNA analysis to a client’s brick wall in their family tree, most often to determine the identify of an unknown grandfather. DNA can also be used to solve problems of several generations ago.

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