The month so far…. Guthrie Genealogy has a new address! DNA project announcements. New revelations. Website updates and more.

GUTHRIE GENEALOGY
Vistaprint is shutting down its Webs hosting services by the end of August, so Guthrie Genealogy has been moved to a new host. The WordPress platform remains the same, so nothing should change in appearance or function as far as this so-so computer savvy gal can tell. Update your bookmarks. The new address for the site is: https://guthriegenealogy.blog

Edited 7/21 @ 0137hrs: After accidentally blowing up the website for a few hours, it’s back! Yay! Note that the web address is now different too.

LINEAGE NEWS for GFG2A – BRANCH A: JAMES & ELIZABETH (MNU) GUTHRIE

Born in Northern Ireland about 1720, James Guthrie married Elizabeth (whose maiden name remains unidentified) and sailed to America during the 1760s. They lived in the area of Baltimore, Maryland for a time before moving on to Orange County, North Carolina. They had 2 sons: James and Robert, and 6 daughters: Ann, Mary, Martha, Margaret, Jean, and Elizabeth. James left a will written November of 1800 and proved Feb 1801 naming his wife, children and several grandchildren. Most of their lineages had been documented for many years now, but their daughter Martha’s line was not.

A study of the will revealed that Martha’s married surname was Barnett, and that she had at least 1 son by Nov 1800 named James Barnett. We theorized that this son was James Guthrie Barnett (born c1795 NC or KY – died 1846 AR), but had no other information on Martha, her husband, or other family members.

Guthrie Genealogy subscriber Caroline Diepenbrock recently contributed her discoveries and research on this family. Check out the details on page 2A-A: Martha Guthrie.

Martha Guthrie was first married to Hugh Barnett, most likely of the Barnett family living in Orange County, NC. No marriage record has been found in NC, KY or TN, but the relationships are documented in probate and other records. They had other children. Hugh Barnett’s death occurred about 1799, and Martha remarried to a man named Joseph Snodgrass in 1803. He assumed administration of Hugh Barnett’s estate. He also provided a power-of-attorney to his brother-in-law Robert Guthrie to secure any inheritance from the estate of James Guthrie Sr back in Orange County, NC.

Mistaken Identities:
1.) Many online trees across multiple platforms continue to incorrectly link this James Guthrie & Elizabeth MNU family to the James Guthrie & Elizabeth Dunlap line. They are distinctly different Guthrie lineages.
2.) Martha Guthrie is also found incorrectly linked to trees as the Martha ‘Patsy’ Guthrie who married Thomas Lowe. These are two different women of the same name. Now that there is documentation about Martha Guthrie Barnett Snodgrass’ life, any Guthrie-Lowe descendants have some evidence showing that they selected the wrong parents for their Martha ‘Patsy’ Guthrie Lowe.

DETAILS on GEORGE GUTHRIE and JENNET MENNON (GFG6 – BRANCH A)

Ancestry has recently added some photographic content from Scottish Monumental Inscriptions providing gravestone images. Guthrie Genealogy subscriber Neil Guthrie reported the hint.

The memorial stone reads:
In memory of Jennet Mennon wife of George Guthrie tenant of Nunlands who died May 1st 1820 aged 67 years.
George Guthrie tenant of Nunlands who died June 28th 1821 aged 70 years.

Importantly, this data now provides us with a fixed birth year for George. We had narrowed down his possible birth records in the Old Parish Records (OPR) to those listed in Berwickshire in 1751 and 1763. Looks like 1751 is the correct birth year based on the calculations from the grave stone. That means the most likely record is for 1 April 1751 “John Guthry his George baptized April 1st 1751” in Eyemouth, Berwickshire, Scotland.

If you check out Scottish Monumental Inscriptions, you can download transcriptions for the whole graveyard at their online shop. George and Jennet’s son, George Guthrie and his wife Helen Dodds are also at Foulden Churchyard. Multiple churchyards and cemeteries are listed.

BIG-Y TESTS / STATUS

Several Big-Y 700 tests remain in the works. Since these are more comprehensive tests, they generally take twice as long as regular DNA tests to receive results from Family Tree DNA.

Y-DNA Tests are direct paternal line genetic tests of the type of DNA inherited from father to son. These results are basically the same generation after generation, which allows us to match up related Guthrie lineages.

A Big-Y 700 test is a super-detailed high quality comprehensive version of what we use for determining who belongs in a family group. It won’t get you Guthrie matches that you don’t already have. This kind of test establishes matching at the prehistoric level showing you matches to people who share a Common Ancestor in various major time periods, such as the Stone Age, Metal Age, Imperial Age, Middle Age, and finally in the Modern Age.

The goal in encouraging project participation in Big-Y testing is to be able to determine a more accurate estimation of when individual lineages split off from their Most Recent Common Ancestors. The Y-700 test narrows the resulting time period to a much smaller number of generations.

There are currently 4 Big-Y tests in some stage of processing. When the results come in an additional week or two is required for the Group Time Tree to update.

EX: GFG3’s Group Time Tree

GENERATION by GENERATION UPDATES – SITE EXPANSION

Updates are finally finished for Guthrie Family Group 1 up through Branch F. One more branch to go.

Additional generation details have been added for each branch of this group.

Reading and Resource links have also been added to each of the family pages providing you with some source material and citations. If you have anything you’d like to add to your relative’s family page or to the resource list, contact me.

GUTHRIE FAMILY GROUP 12 – NEW Y-DNA RESULTS and CHANGES

When Y-DNA testing was first established only 12 genetic markers were reviewed. Our most distant paternal ancestry was given to us as a standard Haplogroup. Results either matched at that basic level or didn’t. Things have changed over the last 20 years of extensive research. Paternal line DNA testing is reviewed on a much more comprehensive level, but some of our earliest participants remain attached to the project with only their original Y12 test results..

Every Guthrie descendant provides us with their unique piece of the family puzzle. Some groups are very lucky to have a large number of participants. Others are still waiting to find someone else from their family line to provide genetic confirmation with a Y-DNA match. Some smaller groups have data, but not enough to expand their Guthrie lineage beyond what is already known. Guthrie men, you have the Y-DNA your cousins need to verify your line.

Guthrie Family Group 12 has new Y37 marker results that have given us some key information.

GFG12-Branch A descends from Robert Guthrie (c1774IRE-1854OH) and Jean McGibney. Previously, we had one project member with an early Y12-marker test and Haplogroup I-P37 designation. Another participant also matched the I-P37 Haplogroup and matched 11 of the 12 markers. This second test was a Y-37 marker test of a descendant of William Guthrie (c1793SCT-1855IN) and Margaret Japp.

The primary matches for the more comprehensive test were to men of the Benbow surname. There were no matches to anyone from an established Guthrie Family Group. The only Guthrie match was to the Y12-marker participant who descended from the Guthrie-McGibney line. That individual also had Benbow matches at the Y12 level. These two participants were grouped together into Guthrie Family Group 12 as Branches A and B pending further testing.

Finally, another descendant of the Guthrie-McGibney line has provided a more comprehensive test allowing a comparison of all 37 genetic markers supplied by the Guthrie-Japp descendant. They don’t match at that level.

Our new participant matches the other Guthrie-McGibney results 12 for 12.

Compared to the Y-37 marker result there are 6 differences indicating that the two Guthrie men do not share a direct paternal ancestor within a genealogical timeframe. Our newest results also show no Benbow matches at the Y37 level.

This means that the Guthrie-McGibney and Guthrie-Japp families do not belong to the same Guthrie Family Group after all. They do share the same Haplogroup, which means that they do share common ancestry at some point in the distant past of the human family tree.

Since our original Y12-marker participant and our new Y37-marker participant do share the same Guthrie-McGibney ancestors, they will continue to represent Guthrie Family Group 12. The Guthrie-Japp line will return to an Ungrouped Family Status until future participants match that genetic profile. The website has already been updated. Changes to the Guthrie Research tree remain pending.

REMINDERS
Keep your FTDNA profiles updated with your current email addresses. It’s the only way I can contact you or your designee if there is a significant update with your group / results.

UPCOMING PLANS

Last August my hospital delivered over 500 babies instead of the usual 350-400, and it looks like we’re gearing up for a repeat. Post-pandemic baby booms are no joke. My 12hr shifts are often more like 14. Random cat naps may interfere with consistent updates. Priorities will be new participants’ DNA analysis reports. After the update for Guthrie Family Group 1-Branch F is completed I will start on the next blog post in the Revolutionary War Series or a Family Focus. As always, contact me if you have any awesome ideas for stories, posts, news items, data corrections, or are interested in contributing or collaborating on Guthrie Genealogy.

~ Ann Guthrie ~
Guthrie Genealogy Coordinator
Guthrie DNA Project Administrator