GFG9
Guthrie Genealogy
Guthrie Family Group 9
Scotland · Ireland · Georgia · South Carolina · New York
From Scotland and Ireland to new lives in America. Explore two family trails, compare the clues, and help discover whether their paternal histories meet.
Open the GFG9 Research Tree →Origin Theories
Parish records, family traditions, and DNA matches offer several starting points. These are questions to investigate, with room for new evidence to change the story.
Before Orkney · Branch A
Could Botriphnie Lead to Thomas’s Parents?
Thomas Guthrie and Jean Duncan married in Botriphnie, Banffshire, on 6 August 1754. Both were described as belonging to that parish. Their later home in Stromness, Orkney, does not establish where either was born.
An earlier Thomas Guthrie and Janet Duncan had children in Botriphnie during the 1720s and 1730s. Could they belong to the preceding generation? No baptism naming the younger Thomas as their son has been identified in the branch study.
Other Scottish candidates to investigate
The study also identifies Thomas Guthrie baptism candidates in Forteviot (1731), Murroes (1732), and Mains & Strathmartine (1734). These are possible identities to trace, rather than established parents for the emigrant.
Follow each child forward through marriages, deaths, occupations, and family associations. The most useful discovery would connect a candidate to the Thomas living in Botriphnie in 1754.
The Irish starting point · Branch B
Which County Clare Family?
John Guthrie and Bridget Healy married in County Clare on 15 February 1843. Identifying their parish and relatives could carry this family back another generation.
A Thomas Guthrie witnessed their daughter Hanna’s New York baptism in 1855. Was he a relative who crossed the Atlantic with them, or followed later?
Follow the witnesses & family records
Bridget’s Civil War widow’s pension file preserves marriage and children’s baptism information. Compare those witnesses with Irish parish entries, passenger records, and New York households.
The marriage location is a firm place to investigate; it does not establish either spouse’s birthplace or the identity of John’s parents.
Other-surname DNA clues
The Green, Greene & Padgett Connections
The October 2026 match exports for kits 170986 and 1030503 both include several Green/Greene and Padgett lines. Could these families share an ancestor before their surnames separated, or did a surname change occur in a later generation?
The names give us families to investigate. They do not establish which surname came first, where a change occurred, or whether the lower-marker matches represent recent kinship.
How to develop the surname clues
Compare documented paternal lines and results at higher marker levels. Look for a place, generation, or family association that fits both the records and the genetic evidence.
The same four matches in both exports already have Big-Y results and are assigned to R-FT333367, including a Green line and a Padgett line. This is a promising branch to investigate through a Guthrie Big-Y comparison. It is not yet a confirmed assignment for either Guthrie kit.
A proposed connection · Ungrouped family
Where Does Thomas Y. Guthrie Belong?
Thomas Y. Guthrie, often called Thomas “Yoner” Guthrie, lived in Tennessee and Madison County, Alabama. Some trees connect him to GFG9; others attach him to the unrelated GFG13 family.
Neither placement is established in his family study. His descendants could help by sharing early records or arranging a Y-DNA test from a documented father-to-son line.
A theory worth testing, not an assigned branch
The proposed Abbeville connection rests on clues such as the given name Thomas and migration toward Tennessee. No document identified in the study connects him to either proposed family.
Keep other possibilities open. Even “Yoner” needs support: the study distinguishes the recorded middle initial from the expanded name circulating in trees.
Most Wanted Documents
- Thomas’s Scottish family: records connecting the Botriphnie couple to parents, siblings, or their move to Orkney.
- The Abbeville generations: wills, deeds, Bible entries, or correspondence documenting the links through John, Samuel, and John Lee Guthrie.
- The Irish parish: John and Bridget’s marriage entry and records identifying their parents or baptism witnesses.
- The American arrival: passenger or household records tracing John and Bridget before their established New York residence.
- The surname connections: sourced paternal lineages for the matching Green/Greene and Padgett families.
A record does not need to solve the whole problem to be useful. Share its source, date, place, and the connection you think it may reveal.
Explore the Branches
Follow either family through its records and descendants. The A and B labels organize the research while their proposed shared origin remains under investigation.
Branch A
Thomas Guthrie & Jean Duncan
Botriphnie → Orkney → Georgia → South Carolina
This family left Orkney aboard the Marlborough in 1774 as indentured emigrants and later settled in Abbeville. Thomas’s 1797 will and the emigrant register provide starting points for tracing the household.
Explore Thomas & Jean’s family →Follow the children & the missing links
The family study follows Margaret, Helen, Adam, Thomas, John, Jean, Jennet, and Alinor.
The participant lineages run through Samuel Guthrie and John Lee Guthrie, both placed under John in the research tree. Their Y-DNA comparison supports a paternal relationship; documentary links to the earlier generations still deserve attention.
Branch B · Shared origin still to be tested
John Guthrie & Bridget Healy
County Clare → American arrival under study → New York
John was a blacksmith and Civil War soldier. Bridget’s pension application preserves details of their marriage and children. Her surname is identified as Healy in the family study.
Explore John & Bridget’s family →Follow the household & the Massachusetts clue
The study follows Patrick, John, Hanna, James Joseph, and Bridget “Delia”.
Susan, born in Massachusetts about 1847, appears with the family in 1860 and is treated as a probable daughter. Her relationship and birth record could help clarify the family’s earlier American movements.
DNA Findings & Testing Priorities
The three match exports dated October 1, 2026 show both useful leads and the limits of the existing tests. The priority now is to add independent paternal lines and compare more of their Y-DNA.
Branch A · Two matching lines
The Guthrie–Duncan Comparison
Y-37 · Genetic distance: 2Kits 170986 and 1030503 represent the Samuel Guthrie and John Lee Guthrie lines. Both have Y-37 results, and their October 2026 exports list one another at a two-step genetic distance.
This supports a shared paternal line. It does not supply the missing documents or name the particular ancestor where their lines join.
Branch B · Provisional comparison
The Guthrie–Healy Connection
Y-12 · Shared origin unconfirmedKit N71610 represents John and Bridget’s family through their son James Joseph. Its October 2026 export contains 6,619 exact 12-marker match records, including 21 with the Guthrie surname.
Those names do not establish a recent family connection. A 12-marker similarity may reflect very distant shared ancestry or convergence, where different lines acquire similar marker values. Higher-resolution testing is needed to evaluate Branch B’s placement.
What the marker counts & differences mean
Y-12 and Y-37 describe how many STR markers were tested. Comparing more markers can help separate close matches from similarities inherited much further back.
Genetic distance counts differences between two results at the level being compared. Even an exact 12-marker match does not establish a recent common ancestor. Distances at different test levels cannot be treated as a simple ranking of family closeness.
The earlier Branch B comparison reported a one-step difference from Branch A at 12 markers. N71610’s October export contains only rows labeled “Exact Match,” so it does not independently recheck that one-step comparison. Its thousands of low-marker matches cannot determine which family connection is relevant.
A match’s larger test does not enlarge this comparison. Someone with Big-Y results appearing on N71610’s Y-12 list is still being compared with that kit at only 12 markers.
Big-Y examines a different kind of inherited change, called a SNP, as well as additional STRs. Comparisons can reveal more specific paternal branches and estimates of their shared ancestry. They still need documented family lines to connect genetic branches to named people.
A different Y-DNA profile within a descendant line
The Branch A study also describes a descendant line whose Y-DNA differs from the matching group profile, while autosomal results include matches to Guthrie–Duncan descendants.
A family connection and a differing direct paternal line can both be real. The records and DNA need to be compared before assigning the difference to a particular generation or assuming how it arose.
Additional independently documented testers can help clarify the family’s inherited profile and where individual lines diverge.
Related Research
The 1774 Emigrant Register
The Branch A study cites pages 47–48 of Emigrants from Scotland to America, 1774–1775 for the family’s journey aboard the Marlborough.
Find the volume in HathiTrust →Bridget’s Widow’s Pension
The pension file supplies family information extending well beyond John’s military service, including marriage and baptism evidence.
Open the pension record on Fold3 →The Three Adams
Thomas and Jean’s son Adam has been confused with men from other families. Follow the identity comparison before accepting a suggested parent or spouse.
Explore the Adam Guthrie case →One—or Two—Norwood Wives?
John Guthrie’s proposed Norwood marriage needs to be distinguished from Robert Guthrie and Jane Norwood of GFG13. Their shared Abbeville setting does not make them one paternal family.
Explore the Norwood identity question →Help Discover GFG9’s Earlier Story
Do you have a Scottish parish clue, an Irish family place-name, an Abbeville document, or a cousin who could represent a missing paternal line? Share what you know and where the trail stops. Your contribution may help answer the next question.
Share a discovery or contact Ann →