Just a suggestion to all you Laurence folks to join the DNA project at http://www.familytreedna.com/ to get your DNA tested. The surname group is listed under Lawrence, and it includes all the different spellings. This is a great way to possibly continue your tree when you have hit a brickwall in your paper trail. Dennis Lawrence is the Lawrence surname group administrator and he has a great website at http://lawrence-ons.org/

This is a great way to possibly continue your tree when you have hit a brickwall in your paper trail, but exactly how?

Getting your DNA tested with FamilyTreeDNA will have your results compared to over 80,000 other project participant's results. If you match results with another participant, you may be lucky to find that person has a paper trail further back than you have. They may have had access to a family bible that no one else knew existed. Of course, I would suspect that if a DNA match occurs, it will happen with another person in your surname group, unless there has been an adoption along the way. Not everyone posts their tree on-line, but they may join a DNA project. There are others that have posted their trees with errors they are unaware of, then hooked up with another "relative" who posted their tree, then found out through DNA testing that they were not related, and that they had those errors in their tree. You may have an ancestor who came to the US from England, but he never reported from where in England. A fellow DNA project member you match might have an ancestor who did report from where in England that he came from.

You write that ". . .If you match results with another participant, you may be lucky to find that person has a paper trail further back than you have. . ."

I have found that recent family conections are unlikely, but distant ones may be more likely. For example, most persons directly related to my DNA seem to be more likely connected in the far distant past. That makes it difficult, and mostly impossible, to learn the point of connection. However, more distantly related persons, do occur in a general way. I have found this to be particularily true in cases of royal lineages (on both maternal and paternal sides) back to 200 AD. But, the connection is still more evident in the ethnicities of those persons, and it is not always recognizable by any particular surname. And, going 40000-80000 years into the past points of beginnings in west central Africa. In that case, learning of any particular name is impossible. But, it does point out the difficulties of find a specific connection through DNA to anyone. I guess the emphasis must be placed on the phrase, "may be lucky". That is still alright, since it is a facinating journey in any case.

Laurence males,

I am writing to you today to alert you to the new DNA sale that FamilyTreeDNA is having. The promotion has begun, and will end on Dec. 31, 2009