Print Price: $28.95

Format:
Paperback
256 pp.
156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780198736486

Publication date:
November 2015

Imprint: OUP UK

Surnames, DNA, and Family History

George Redmonds, Turi King and David Hey

This book combines linguistic and historical approaches with the latest techniques of DNA analysis and shows the insights these offer for every kind of genealogical research. It focuses on British names, tracing their origins to different parts of the British Isles and Europe and revealing how names often remain concentrated in the districts where they first became established centuries ago. In the process the book casts fresh light on the ancient peopling of the British Isles. The authors consider why some names die out while others spread across the globe. They use recent advances in DNA testing to investigate whether particular surnames have single, dual, or multiple origins, and to find out if the various forms of a single name have a common origin. They show how information from DNA can be combined with historical evidence and techniques to distinguish between individuals with the same name and different names with similar spellings, and to identifty the name of the same individual or family spelt in various ways in different times and places.

The final chapter of this paperback edition, looking at the use of genetics in historical research, has been updated to include new work on the DNA of Richard III.

Readership : All those engaged in genealogical research, including everyone seeking to discover the histories of their names and families.

Reviews

• "An excellent book, for its clarity, up-to-dateness, and coverage of all the important aspects of genetic genealogy, with many interesting and useful details not given in other books."
  
  --Genetic Genealogy
  
  
• "[T]hey enjoyably demonstrate how ancestral links may be explored."
  
  --Family History Monthly 01/12/2011
  
  
• "[I]t provides exciting clues about how recent developments in DNA analysis are shaping genealogical research"
  
  --Who Do You Think You Are? 01/12/2011
  
  
• "Enthralling and compulsively readable, this book combines linguistics with genetics, genealogy, and local history to provide a fresh and eye-opening vision of the British past - and indeed of family histories across a wider world. Focusing on the history of British surnames it casts a totally new light on what makes us who we are - and how we can find out. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in their roots, this book offers nothing less than a new perspective on British history."
  
  --Michael Wood, historian and broadcaster 09/08/2011
  
  
• "An excellent book, for its clarity, up-to-dateness, and coverage of all the important aspects of genetic genealogy, with many interesting and useful details not given in other books."
  
  --Genetic Genealogy
  
  
• "This book will come to be seen as an important progenitor of a new historical subdiscipline, a ground-breaking interdisciplinary liaison, between history and genetics, one that may eclipse the boldness of any such humanities scientific collaboration hitherto."
  
  --Professor Keith Snell, Annual Bulletin of Historical Literature 30/04/13
  
  
• "This book is ground-breaking for two reasons: firstly, it is the only book I have encountered that takes a truly multi-disciplinary approach to surname study, integrating linguistic, historical, genealogical, geographical, and scientific (genetic) evidence, and secondly, it is the first book I have read that reviews and identifies the strengths and (more particularly) the deficiencies of surname study to date and clearly sets out the various sources and methods one can and should use to investigate surnames successfully. For these two reasons alone the book deserves to be read by anyone with an interest in surnames or names and naming more generally."
  
  --Simon Draper, Nomina 12/11/13