My autosomal DNA on Ancestry has generated over 20,000 matches. As previously stated (see Y DNA or not Y DNA) the vast majority of these are either too remote or have insufficient information attached to be of any real use. The number of matches of my Y DNA (on Family Tree DNA) appears to be heading in the same direction. As of 1st June 2026, I have over 4,000 matches. How many of these share my surname? None! This tells me that the common ancestor must predate the widespread use of surnames.
Some 480 of the 4,000 state Ireland as the country of origin of the earliest known ancestor. This fits with my belief. But I must be aware that my belief may be based on flawed logic. I know that my paternal ancestors were in Ireland at the end of the 18th century. But how long had they been there, and from whence did they come?
Just over 1,000 of the matches cite the rest of the British Isles as the origin of the earliest known ancestor, with a quarter of these referencing Scotland. Did some Scots go to Ireland, or was it the other way round?
Over 1900 (so nearly half) do not state a country of origin. This is disappointing. Even if the correspondent has only researched their grandfather, this information would be better than nothing at all.
I have downloaded the full list in a spreadsheet. Contributors are invited to record the name, date of birth and country of origin of their oldest known male relative. I have extracted the earliest complete records. These are shown below.
| Earliest Known Ancestor | Born | Paternal Country of Origin |
| Bengt Jönsson | 1440 | Finland |
| Andrew Baird | 1475 | Scotland |
| Joos Van Vijver | 1535 | Belgium (Flanders) |
| Andries van Valkenburg | 1540 | Netherlands |
| Cornelis Jansz Spiering | 1543 | Netherlands |
| Johan Hans Bapst | 1550 | Germany |
| Jacobus Baeten | 1566 | Belgium |
| Antoine Bourg | 1609 | France |
| Thomas Hansson Ruus | 1635 | Norway |
| Juan Alderete | 1650 | Spain |
| Jan Sladky Kozina | 1652 | Czech Republic |
| Jan Knizek | 1660 | Czech Republic |
| Rudolph Spinrudi Bleiler | 1662 | Switzerland |
| Johan Persson | 1679 | Sweden |
| Domingos Lopes | 1680 | Portugal |
| Yarmak Klyaushev | 1682 | Russian Federation |
| Solomon Massias | 1711 | Morocco |
| Antoni Jagielski | 1783 | Poland |
There are also records citing the country of origin as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania and Ukraine.
It has to be said that there has been some impressive research undertaken. There is Y DNA connecting me to a man in Finland and another one in Scotland over 550 years ago. Family names were not in common use in most of Western Europe more than 400 years ago. The clan system in Scotland takes that back somewhat further. The common ancestor must be centuries further back to allow sufficient time for the family to have migrated to all parts of Europe and slightly further afield as well. The science indicates that I could be looking for a link 1,000-1,500 years ago. Clearly, I am not going to have much joy connecting my ancestors spread across those distances and timescales. Perhaps the common ancestor was a Saxon in the 6th or 7th century. Sadly, it is unlikely that I will ever know. As the map shows, Europe in 900 AD was quite different to today’s pattern of countries.