GFG19
Guthrie Genealogy
Guthrie Family Group 19
Aberdeenshire & Inverness-shire
Following the family from Scotland to Canada
Two Scottish families, a close Y-DNA match, and an ancestor still to find. Help us discover where their paternal lines meet.
Open the GFG19 Research Tree →Origin Theories & Open Questions
The missing connection
Who Was Their Shared Ancestor?
The two branches give us different Scottish starting points. The next task is to connect them through records naming parents, siblings, or other relatives.
Both households include a man named Donald, but that name alone cannot establish a relationship. The Y37 match does not identify a particular generation or prove that the two Donalds were father and son, brothers, or cousins.
Compare the families’ residences, occupations, spouses, witnesses, and associates as well as their names.
A candidate to investigate
The 1734 Donald Guthry Entry
The Branch A research notes identify an entry dated 7 July 1734 for Donald Guthry, son of John Guthry and Beak McPherson, with the residence recorded as Nold.
A child born in 1734 would have been about 44 at Donald Guthrie and Mary Matthew’s 1778 marriage. That is possible, but the age calculation does not establish that they were the same man.
This parentage remains unverified. Records connecting the Nold household to the Aberdeenshire family are still needed.
Follow the Places Without Assuming the Route
A movement between Inverness-shire and Aberdeenshire is worth investigating. The direction, date, and reason remain open questions. Neither the name Donald nor the wider history of Highland migration proves a particular journey, military connection, or displacement for this family.
Later descendants of both branches reached Montreal and Ontario. Canadian records may reveal useful family connections, but a shared destination alone does not identify their common ancestor.
Most Wanted Documents
- Donald Guthrie and Mary Matthew: the 1778 Ellon and Logie Buchan entries, plus records identifying their parents, earlier residences, or relatives.
- Donald Guthrie and Grace Clark: marriage, baptism, tenancy, or estate records placing their household in Kingussie and Insh and identifying Donald’s family.
- The Nold candidate: the original 1734 entry and later records showing what became of that Donald Guthry.
- A bridge between branches: wills, inventories, leases, letters, or church records naming relatives in both areas.
- The Canadian families: correspondence, obituaries, marriage witnesses, and family papers connecting the Scottish households with their descendants overseas.
Explore the Two Branches
Each branch has its own family page. Follow the links for the fuller chronology, descendants, and research notes.
Branch A · Guthrie–Matthew
Donald Guthrie & Mary Matthew
Married in 1778 · Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Ellon & Logie Buchan → later descendants in Canada
Donald was a farmer. The family account identifies nine children. The represented Y-DNA line passes through their son John Guthrie and his wife Jean (Jane) Clark.
John’s son Robert Guthrie, a tailor, married Margaret Milne. Robert and members of his family emigrated to Canada, with connections to Montreal and Ontario.
Open the family & tested line
Children listed in the branch research:
- Mary Guthrie
- John Guthrie
- James Guthrie
- Jean Guthrie
- Janet Guthrie
- William Guthrie
- Marjory Guthrie
- Euphemia Guthrie
- Margaret Guthrie
Kit 42462: Donald Guthrie & Mary Matthew → John Guthrie & Jean Clark → Robert Guthrie & Margaret Milne → Robert James Guthrie & Catherine Broomfield → later generations.
Branch B · Guthrie–Clark
Donald Guthrie & Grace Clark
Grace also recorded as Grizel · Inverness-shire, Scotland
Kingussie & Insh → Edinburgh → descendants in Canada
The family account identifies three Guthrie children: Alexander, Evan (Hugh), and Margaret. Both sons worked as coach hirers. Margaret’s family remained in Inverness-shire.
The represented Y-DNA line passes through Hugh Guthrie and Catherine MacGregor, whose family sailed aboard the Emma Fields in 1853.
Open the family & tested line
- Alexander Guthrie · married Mary McGregor
- Evan (Hugh) Guthrie · married Catherine MacGregor
- Margaret Guthrie · married John MacDonald
Kit 1023529: Donald Guthrie & Grace Clark → Hugh Guthrie & Catherine MacGregor → Donald Guthrie & Eliza Margaret McVicar → later generations.
Grace later married John Kennedy. The branch page also follows her Kennedy household.
The Canadian Story · Loss, a New Home & Public Service
The Branch B family account records the deaths of Hugh Guthrie, Catherine MacGregor, and two young daughters during the 1853 voyage of the Emma Fields. Surviving family members continued from New York to Canada.
Their son Donald Guthrie (1840–1915), born in Edinburgh, became a barrister. He married Eliza Margaret McVicar in Montreal on 17 December 1863.
His political career included two distinct offices: Member of Parliament in Canada’s House of Commons, 1876–1882, and later Member of Provincial Parliament for Wellington South in Ontario, 1886–1894.
Parliament of Canada: Donald Guthrie →
DNA Findings
Two Guthrie Kits · One Step at Y37
The two match exports show a reciprocal genetic distance of one at 37 markers. In each file, the other Guthrie kit is the closest listed match and the only match listed under the Guthrie surname.
| Kit | Branch | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 42462 | A · Guthrie–Matthew | Y37 · R-M269 |
| 1023529 | B · Guthrie–Clark | Y37 · R-M269 |
The close match supports a shared paternal line. The documentary task is to establish how the two Scottish families connect.
Based on the two match exports dated 1 October 2026 and the branch participant rosters. Neither Guthrie kit is listed with a Big Y result.
The strongest shared surname lead
The Robertson Match
The same Robertson profile appears at two steps from kit 42462 and three steps from kit 1023529, at the 37-marker comparison level.
The match reports David Robertson (1836–1919) as his earliest known paternal ancestor and lists New Zealand as paternal country of origin. Those are research leads supplied by the match.
The Robertson tester has Y111 results. Upgrading the Guthrie comparisons could help determine whether this remains a useful close match at more markers.
What the current results leave open
A More Detailed Branch Is Still Needed
Both Guthrie kits report R-M269, a broad paternal haplogroup. Neither currently has a more specific Big Y placement recorded for the project.
The other matches include several surnames and more detailed haplogroups. Their SNP labels cannot be assigned to GFG19 from a Y37 match alone.
There is currently no Big Y basis for dating the common ancestor, choosing a particular non-Guthrie surname as the earlier family name, or identifying a surname change.
Open the Match Comparisons & What They Mean
The comparison level matters. “Markers Tested” describes the match’s own test. A match listed as having 111 or 700 markers is still being compared with these Guthrie kits at 37 markers.
Hahn is another shared lead. That profile is four steps from Branch A and three from Branch B. The match profile does not name an earliest paternal ancestor.
Other shared matches include Dyar, Jamieson, Wilkinson, Kemler, McBride, and two separate Ryan profiles. Each is three steps from Branch A and four from Branch B. These matches may help with future comparisons, but none currently identifies the ancestor joining the Guthrie branches.
Different list sizes do not measure closeness. The files contain 79 and 29 match rows respectively. A small change in a Y37 profile can move matches across the reporting threshold. The useful comparison is the distance to each match at the same marker level.
One step does not supply a date. A close STR match is useful evidence of paternal relationship, but it does not establish that the common ancestor lived in the mid-1700s or identify either Donald’s parents.
Autosomal Participation
Kit B651305 is listed for Branch B through Donald Guthrie and Eliza Margaret McVicar. This is an autosomal participation entry, separate from the two Y-DNA kits above.
Autosomal matches can contribute to the family research through daughters as well as sons. Organize relevant matches and their documented Guthrie ancestry so we can investigate specific connections.
Help Move the Research Forward
More branches · More evidence
Does Your Family Lead to Northern Scotland?
We welcome descendants of either branch and Guthrie families whose connection is still uncertain.
Additional men descended through an unbroken father-to-son line could help test the branch assignments. Descendants through daughters can contribute records, photographs, stories, and autosomal findings.
Share the connecting generations back to your earliest proven Guthrie ancestor, with dates, places, and spouses where known.
Targeted upgrades
What Could More Testing Add?
Upgrading both existing kits to Y111 would extend their direct comparison and help reassess the other-surname matches.
Big Y results from both branches could identify their SNP relationship and provide a more detailed setting for the search. Testing one branch first would still improve its placement.
Contact Ann before ordering to discuss the most useful comparison and possible sponsorship. A Y37 kit can be upgraded directly to Big Y.
Open the Research Resources
- Scottish records: ScotlandsPeople provides access to parish, statutory, census, and other records. Follow Ellon, Logie Buchan, Cruden, and Peterhead for Branch A; Kingussie and Insh and later Edinburgh for Branch B.
- Family chronologies: the Branch A and Branch B pages collect the current family reconstruction and unresolved questions.
- The 1853 voyage: the shared Emma Fields passenger-list record is a starting point for following Hugh Guthrie’s family.
- Montreal, 1863: Donald Guthrie and Eliza Margaret McVicar’s marriage appears in the Drouin Collection.
- Canadian biography: A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography provides an account of Donald Guthrie’s life. Compare biographical details with original family records and the official parliamentary profiles linked above.
- Later generations: continue through Quebec and Ontario church and civil records, census returns, directories, obituaries, and U.S. records for families who moved south.
Some Ancestry records may require an account or subscription for full access.