GFG15
Guthrie Genealogy
Guthrie Family Group 15
Virginia & Pennsylvania clues · Adams & Brown Counties, Ohio · Illinois & beyond
Two matching paternal lines lead back to families in southern Ohio. Can another cousin, an overlooked record, or a second Big-Y test help connect their missing generations?
Open the GFG15 Research Tree →Origin Theories
The strongest clues begin with the Ohio households and the places their records name. These theories give us specific questions to investigate.
Before Ohio · Following the birthplace clues
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the Journey West
Joseph appears in the 1820 census of Liberty Township, Adams County, Ohio. His age category places his birth before about 1775, but his birthplace is unknown.
Later records name Virginia as the birthplace of David and Jonathan, and Pennsylvania for Elisha and the older William. If the proposed family relationships are correct, these entries may trace the family’s westward movement.
Help investigate: identify their earlier counties through deeds, tax lists, marriage records, and neighbors who moved with them.
Connecting the branches · William’s proposed parents
Was William a Son of David and Mary?
William, who married Katy Boyles, was born in Ohio in 1819. David and Mary’s early census household includes an unidentified boy whose age could fit.
The nearby Adams and Brown County households and the matching Y-DNA make the proposed descent through David worth pursuing. Neither the census age category nor the match identifies William’s parents.
Help investigate: find a will, guardianship, deed, family Bible, or other record naming William in David’s family.
Keep the two David Guthrie families separate
The candidate here is David Guthrie, born about 1792 in Virginia, who lived in Brown County, Ohio, and later Jefferson County, Illinois. His wife is identified as Mary; her maiden surname is unresolved in this research.
David Guthrie and Mary Ann Kirkpatrick of GFG2C belong to a different family. Do not borrow Kirkpatrick to fill the missing surname or attach William to that couple. The project’s paternal DNA findings do not support that proposed placement.
A distinct paternal line · Its earlier Guthrie connection
Could an Adoption or Parentage Event Explain the Difference?
GFG15 has a paternal profile distinct from the other established Guthrie Family Groups. An adoption, surname change, or undocumented parentage event is one possible explanation.
Joseph’s generation has been proposed as a possible point of change. That theory depends in part on confirming the family reconstructed around him. An earlier, still-unidentified Guthrie line remains possible.
Help investigate: test additional documented male lines and search for earlier Guthrie relatives. The current matches do not point to one particular alternative surname.
Overseas origins · A question still open
Where Was the Family Before America?
The group’s deeper paternal ancestry belongs within the I1 haplogroup family. Its distant matches offer leads for studying ancient ancestry, but have not identified the family’s immigrant ancestor.
A specific Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian, or continental European origin still needs evidence connecting the American family to an overseas household. The current results do not establish a Viking or other particular migration story.
Help investigate: look for a named immigrant, an overseas parish, or a newly tested Guthrie line with a documented connection.
Most Wanted Documents
- Joseph’s family: probate, land, church, or family records naming his wife and children.
- Elisha’s parents: a record connecting Elisha and Rebecca’s household to Joseph or another earlier Guthrie family.
- William’s parents: evidence identifying the father and mother of the William born in 1819 who married Katy Boyles.
- David and Mary: records identifying Mary’s maiden surname and the children of their Brown County, Ohio, and Jefferson County, Illinois, household.
- The earlier Virginia and Pennsylvania homes: a deed, tax entry, marriage, or other record linking the Ohio families with a particular county.
- The Ohio–Illinois relatives: correspondence, estate distributions, and family papers connecting the households that moved west.
Have a record, a family Bible, or a clue to share? Contact Ann →
Explore the Branches
The branches preserve two useful starting points while research continues on the connections between them.
Branch A · The family associated with Joseph Guthrie
Joseph Guthrie & Unidentified Spouse
Virginia / Pennsylvania clues → Adams & Brown Counties, Ohio → some families in Illinois
Joseph’s 1820 Liberty Township household is the starting point for a proposed family that includes David, Jonathan, Joseph, Elisha, and William. Their proximity and later records offer clues, but the parent–child links have not all been established.
Current Y-DNA line: kit 178599, a Y67 test through Elisha Guthrie and Rebecca Caspison, then James Robinson Guthrie.
Explore Joseph’s proposed family →
Open the families under investigation
- David Guthrie & Mary, maiden surname unknown — Brown County, Ohio, and Jefferson County, Illinois. Proposed parents of Branch B’s William.
- Jonathan Guthrie & Sarah Dobbins — Ohio and Jefferson County, Illinois. Additional male-line testing would be useful.
- Joseph Guthrie — a presumed son, listed as a laborer in the Gilbert household in 1850.
- Elisha Guthrie & Rebecca Caspison — Adams County, Ohio. The currently tested Branch A line.
- William Guthrie — the Pennsylvania-born wagon maker, husband first of Margaret Caspison and later Rebecca, maiden surname unknown.
The older William, born about 1806, is a different man from Branch B’s William, born in 1819.
Branch B · Guthrie–Boyles
William Guthrie & Katy Emeline Boyles
Adams County, Ohio → descendants in Ohio, Kentucky & Missouri
William was born on 28 February 1819 and married Katy Emeline Boyles in Adams County on 2 February 1839. He died in 1844, leaving a young family.
Katy later married Henry Vane. Her Guthrie children can be followed through both the Guthrie and Vane family records.
Current Y-DNA line: kit B543418, a Big Y-700 test through Thomas Franklin Guthrie and Jemima Brumley. William’s proposed placement under David and Mary remains unproved.
Explore William & Katy’s family →
Open the children’s names
- David James C. Guthrie — died in childhood.
- Martha Jane Guthrie
- Thomas Franklin Guthrie — the currently tested line.
- William Boyles Guthrie — husband of Elizabeth Ann Dragoo; family later in Missouri.
DNA Findings & Testing Priorities
Two participants: one Y67 test and one Big Y-700. Their common comparison level is 67 markers.
A Close Match Between the Two Ohio Lines
Kits 178599 and B543418 differ by two steps at 37 markers and three steps at 67 markers.
This supports shared paternal ancestry between the tested Elisha and William lines. It does not, by itself, establish Joseph as their common ancestor or prove the proposed descent through David.
| Kit / branch | Test | Represented line |
|---|---|---|
| 178599 Branch A |
Y67 | Elisha Guthrie & Rebecca Caspison → James Robinson Guthrie |
| B543418 Branch B |
Big Y-700 | William Guthrie & Katy Emeline Boyles → Thomas Franklin Guthrie & Jemima Brumley |
Reviewed 1 October 2026. The proposed earlier links to Joseph and David are kept separate from the tested descendant lines.
Open the three marker differences
| Marker | 178599 | B543418 |
|---|---|---|
| DYS385 | 14–15 | 14–14 |
| CDY | 37–37 | 36–37 |
| DYS520 | 20 | 21 |
The DYS385 and CDY differences occur within the first 37 markers. DYS520 adds the third difference in the extended 67-marker comparison.
With one tester per line, we cannot yet tell which values their common ancestor carried or where the changes occurred. More independently documented descendants could help identify markers associated with particular branches.
Big-Y result · Branch B
I-FTE51511: A More Specific Paternal Branch
Kit B543418 has a confirmed Big-Y placement at I-FTE51511. Kit 178599 currently displays the much broader I-M170 designation and has not taken Big Y.
The close STR match makes a Big-Y comparison between these two Guthrie lines especially useful. It could identify shared mutations belonging to their more recent family history.
Until that comparison is available, I-FTE51511 is the confirmed result of the Branch B tester, rather than a separately confirmed result for both kits.
Other surname matches · No clear candidate yet
The Guthrie Match Leads Both Y67 Lists
In both supplied Y67 match lists, the other Guthrie participant is the closest match at three steps.
Kit B543418 also matches Salminen and Saarilahti at six steps, and Hill at seven steps.
Kit 178599 has four other listed matches—Salminen, Johnson, Kozecke, and Saarilahti—each at seven steps.
No particular alternative surname has yet been established as the source of this paternal line. Some matches in the broader Y37 list have not tested to 67 markers; their absence from the Y67 list does not rule out a connection. Further testing and documented family histories may help sort out these leads.
Ancient Haplogroup Dates and the Ohio Family
The supplied FamilyTreeDNA report estimates that I-FTE51511 separated from its parent branch, I-BY70893, around 600 BCE. It estimates the common ancestor of the tested I-FTE51511 lines around 50 BCE.
These are dates for the wider genetic branch. They do not date the ancestor connecting the two Guthrie families in Ohio.
The report’s two tested descendants give earliest-known origins in the United States and Belgium (Wallonia). They are not the same as GFG15’s two project participants: only one of our two has a Big-Y result.
A second Guthrie Big-Y test could help define a more recent branch within that ancient ancestry. The estimates and branch structure may change as additional results arrive.
How to read the wider Match Time Tree
The tree includes men with several surnames whose connections meet much farther back in human history. Follow each path back to its shared branching point; nearby names on the screen need not represent a recent family relationship.
The presence of Scandinavian, British, or other European ancestral origins among those matches does not establish the migration route of the American Guthrie family.
Use the company’s help pages when comparing STR genetic distance, Big-Y results, and estimated ancestor dates. They describe different parts of the evidence.
FTDNA: Y-DNA match levels · FTDNA: understanding the Time Tree
Small Group. Plenty of Ways to Help.
- Elisha’s family: additional male-line descendants through different sons would help establish the Branch A pattern. A Big-Y upgrade for kit 178599 would provide a direct comparison with Branch B.
- William and Katy’s family: a male-line descendant of William Boyles Guthrie would add a comparison with the existing Thomas Franklin line.
- David and Mary’s documented descendants: a tester through another established son could help investigate William’s proposed placement.
- Jonathan and the other proposed sons of Joseph: independently documented male lines could help test the larger family reconstruction.
- Other Guthrie families: new participants with roots in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or elsewhere may supply a missing connection.
Share the tester’s Guthrie line from the tester back to the earliest proven ancestor, with dates, spouses, and sources where available. If the line is incomplete, share what is known and identify the uncertain links.
Contact Ann to discuss a test that fits your research and budget. Big Y is valuable for the next comparison, but it need not be every new participant’s first test.
Choosing a DNA Test · Joining the Project · Group Funding & Sponsorship
Follow the Research
How GFG15 Began
The 2019 announcement records the arrival of a second matching Guthrie line and the family questions that brought the group together.
Read the group’s beginning →The Other David Guthrie Family
Compare the separate GFG2C family of David Guthrie and Mary Ann Kirkpatrick before adding a spouse or parents to your tree.
Explore the family distinction →