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Could a DNA test help me with my Curtis brick wall?

Q My father’s surname was Avery, but when Istarted doing my family tree I discovered that his real father was a George Curtis. I’ve managed to get back as far as the early 1800s on my paternal line, to a William Curtis born c1801 in Little Bourton, Oxfordshire. He married Elizabeth Hazlewood, but I can’t get back another generation. Would a DNA test help? Tim Avery father’s surname

A DNA testing could certainly help with this scenario, but there are no guarantees of immediate success. It works by putting you in a matching database, so you are reliant on the right people being in the database to allow you to confirm or refute relationships.

DNA testing cannot always provide the answers, but it can sometimes help to point you in the right direction. The cost of tests has come down in recent years, and there are often special offers. I would recommend starting with a test from AncestryDNA (ancestry.co.uk/dna) because it has the largest database with over 20 million people. It offers autosomal tests, which match you with genetic cousins who could be related to you on any of your ancestral lines.

The 1851 census suggests that William Curtis was born in Little Bourton, Oxfordshire, around 1801

This type of test is best used for finding connections up to around the fourth-cousin level, which would be in the right timeframe for your brick wall. Hopefully you will have matches with cousins on your Curtis/Avery line, which would allow you to verify your existing research and help you to trace your tree further back in time. The test could also shed light on your other ancestral lines.

You might find it helpful to take a Y-chromosome DNA test too. This will give you matches with genetic cousins who are related on your direct paternal line. Y-DNA testing has a much deeper reach than autosomal DNA testing, and can confirm genealogical connections back to the beginning of surnames. You would need to test with

FamilyTreeDNA (familytreedna. com) because it is the only company with a Y-DNA database for genealogical matching. Since your direct paternal line is from Oxfordshire, you would qualify for the Oxfordshire DNA Project (ofhs.uk/category/whats-on/projects/dna-surname-project). Curtis is on the list of surnames being researched, so contact the organisers for further advice. Debbie Kennett

HAVE YOU HIT A BRICK WALL?

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