I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.
Abraham Lincoln

If only the 16th President of the USA had known how important genetic research was to become some 150 years afterwards. As the relentless research into the effects of genetics on the human condition continues, even in these early stages, the research is providing benefits. Some human conditions, mainly in the medical field, have been attributed to genetic (DNA) makeup.

For those of us involved in the genealogy field, either as amateurs or professionals, the research is opening up new lines of enquiry especially where the paper trial has gone cold. Okay, our real interest is only a small part of this field and is more concerned with the X and the Y gene. The Y gene contributes only some 2% of a man's genetic make-up but the results are quite dramatic!

dynastyDB is a genealogical tool that aims to marry the standard geneological records and yDNA data to form a record of a single surname family over hundreds of years. For more information about dynastyDB, please click here. The application's developments and other genealogy matters are discussed in the dynastyBlog.

The application is still in its infancy but already is generating family trees for public consumption, please see the 'Ellis Families of West Riding Yorkshire ' website. I hope that feedback both from that and this site will assist me in improving the application to a point where I may be able to release the code for other similar studies of other family names, hopefully to the point that most popular surnames become available on the Internet.