Guthrie Blog Topics
Legends & Unsolved Mysteries
Familiar stories. Missing evidence. Discoveries that change the family tree.
The research keeps moving—and sometimes, so do the branches.
New records and DNA matches help us test familiar pedigrees, uncover unexpected connections, and give families a more accurate place in the Guthrie story. These articles follow that work as it unfolds.
Published 2024
The Seven Brothers Legend
Seven names. But were they brothers?
An enduring immigration story brought seven Guthrie men into one supposed family. Follow the records and Y-DNA evidence that separate several of their lines into different family groups—while other identities remain open.
Published 2019 · Later DNA discovery
Legends, Myths & Skeletons
A fisherman, a Viking king, and a very old skeleton.
Explore surname folklore, ancient-DNA questions, and a proposed medieval MacGuthrie connection. Which stories offer clues, and which still need evidence?
Published 2025 · A.G.A.F. Mysteries
Who Was Samuel Guthrie?
New Jersey, 1685/86. A will. An unexpected heir.
A brief entry in American Guthrie and Allied Families opens a much larger mystery. Why did Samuel name David Vilant as his heir, and what might the people around him reveal about his origins?
Families & Ancestral Connections
Missing generations. Unexpected matches. A better place on the family tree.
What we discovered next · Published 2023
Guthrie–Howell: One DNA result changed the family story.
Thomas Guthrie and Mildred Howell had long been placed among the descendants associated with GFG2A–Branch I. When a direct paternal-line descendant tested, the evidence pointed to a different Guthrie family altogether.
The old paternal connection was overturned. Thomas’s parents remain unidentified, but the search now has a different genetic family to investigate.
Family Focus
Every family deserves a closer look.
Meet Guthrie families whose origins are still being investigated. Follow their records, migrations, and competing theories—and discover how a new DNA participant can help a family find its group.
Stories with a next chapter: Some families remain ungrouped; others have since gained a confirmed DNA placement. The collection brings their investigations and current status together.
GFG3 Theories & The Forgotten Sons
Could a missing generation explain the puzzle?
Travel from Ayrshire to the American branches, then follow the records that distinguish Francis Guthrie Sr. from a younger Francis and bring John into the family investigation.
- GFG3 Theories: Part One 2019 · The Ayrshire and New Zealand connection
- GFG3 Theories: Part Two 2019 · Reconsidering the American branches
- The Forgotten Sons 2021 · Following the missing generations
The research has moved forward: Branch labels and family arrangements have changed since these articles appeared. Some earlier connections remain proposed.
Robert, John & James: Ironmongers of Edinburgh
Three names. A family tradition. Plenty to untangle.
Explore the origins, timelines, and family connections attributed to the three Edinburgh ironmongers. Follow the clues behind a story passed through generations of Guthrie research.
What we discovered next: The Thomas Guthrie–Mildred Howell family formerly placed in Branch I belongs to GFG5–H. Read the Guthrie–Howell discovery above alongside this earlier investigation.
Thomas Guthrey of McMinn County, Tennessee
1796–1890 · Following the evidence back a generation.
Patrick Hoggard investigates Thomas’s parents, siblings, wife, and children, using documentary evidence to revisit family connections. The report and two addenda also examine Guthrie–Coleman relationships.
Places, Journeys & Beliefs
Across oceans, along rivers, and into the records of a new home.
What took your Guthries to the places they called home? Follow stories of migration, trade, faith, and forced journeys—and the clues left in the communities along the way.
Published 2019 · Virginia
Tidewater Virginia Families
Same surname. Same region. Different families.
Follow the rivers, parishes, and changing county boundaries that shaped early Guthrie settlement. Explore why families living near one another should not automatically be joined into a single pedigree.
Published 2020 · Transportation
Colonial Prisoners & Convicts
Not every journey began with a choice.
Prisoners of war and people sentenced to transportation appear among the Guthries sent overseas. Explore names and records associated with North America, the West Indies, and Australia.
Published 2020 · GFG2A, Branch K
French Huguenots
Could an old family story lead to France?
Descendants of Robert Guttery and Elizabeth preserve a possible Huguenot connection. Explore the migration history and family clues behind that tradition, which remains an open research question.
Published 2026 · The Netherlands
Scots in Rotterdam
Was there another home between Scotland and America?
Rotterdam offered Scots a place for trade, community, and refuge. Explore Guthrie church records and the questions raised by possible connections across the North Sea. Proposed family-origin scenarios remain avenues for research.
Published 2026 · Faith & community
A Matter of Religion
A church connection can open a new trail.
Religious affiliations can offer clues to a family’s records, neighbors, and movements. Explore the Guthrie story through changing beliefs and communities, with detailed biographies for two of its best-known ministers.
Published 2026 · Texas
Texians & Texans
Changing borders. New beginnings. Guthrie stories.
Meet Guthries associated with Mexican Texas, the Republic, and early statehood. Follow their families through land records, settlement, and the changing jurisdictions that shaped their lives.
Lairds, Ministers & Family Profiles
Beyond the familiar pedigree: people, property, and the records that connect them.
Branch Profiles · Published 2026 · Growing collection
The Guthrie of… Profile Series
Lost relatives reappear. Separate families untangle. A charter changes the story. Explore Scottish Guthrie families through profiles that bring scattered records together and distinguish documented relationships from working theories.
Where could the next discovery come from? The profiles identify the unanswered questions and specific documents that could move the research forward.
Lairds, Ministers & Martyrs
Famous names need evidence, too.
An early exploration of prominent Guthrie families, the Pitforthie household, and Rev. James Guthrie of Stirling. Follow the original questions, then visit the expanded biographies for the later research.
What we discovered next: Rev. James’s biography now examines a specific Memus parentage lead. It remains provisional pending examination of the cited 1659 sasine.
Kingennie & Pitforthie
A clue in his wife’s family opened another door.
Janet Lyon’s family history offered a route into the ancestry of James Guthrie of Pitforthie. Follow the investigation from that clue to the fuller reconstruction of the Kingennie and Pitforthie family.
What we discovered next: Brechin deeds identify James as the son of William Guthrie of Kingennie and Elizabeth Fethie. A paternal connection to the Guthries of Guthrie remains unproved.
Debunking Tradition
What happens when the charters tell a different story?
John Guthrie of Hiltoun had a familiar place in the traditional pedigree. Records connecting him to Eassie prompted a fresh investigation of where he belonged and how the family acquired its lands.
Follow the expanded research: The combined Eassie & Hiltoun profile brings the family, property history, documentary evidence, and remaining questions together.
Margaret Guthrie of Lunan
A Carnegie wife. A Guthrie daughter. Which Guthries?
Margaret, wife of Sir Robert Carnegie of Kinnaird, leads us into the Guthries associated with Lunan. Explore the records and competing parentage claims behind a woman whose precise family origins remain unresolved.
What we discovered next: The expanded Lunan profile traces the Guthrie tenancy back to 1418 and separates documented family relationships from an assumed continuous pedigree.
Mistaken Identities & Conflicting Evidence
Untangling the names, spouses, and generations that wandered onto the wrong tree.
Mixed-Up Marthas? Jumbled-Up Jameses? Borrowed Brides?
If two people with the same name have somehow acquired each other’s parents, spouses, children, dates or hometowns, you may have found your next Mistaken Identity.
Explore the current case collection, then follow the individual investigations below to see how the records help put families back together.
John & Jane: Two Different Couples
The parents’ names match. Do the families?
John Guthrie and Jane Sixsmith lived in the Windsor area; John Guthrie and Jane Laidlaw raised their later family in Shoreditch. Follow the locations, occupations, and household records that help assign their children to the right parents.
Two Halifax Johns
Two states. Two wives. Two family groups.
This installment opens with John Guthrey and Betty Ann Allen of the Virginia family, and John Guthrie and Anna Smith of the North Carolina family. Similar names and places helped their marriages become tangled in online trees.
A useful distinction: These men belong to separate paternal families, GFG4 and GFG5. Halifax, Virginia and Halifax, North Carolina are different places.
CT/MA: Guthrie–Hickox
One misplaced marriage. Generations of confusion.
Which James Guthrie married Mehitable Hickox, and which James was the son of James Guthrie and Abigail Betts? Follow the documentary review behind a correction to a marriage placement repeated from an 1898 family history.
Merging Lineages
An exciting clue—but is it enough to join the trees?
Andrew Milton Guthrie’s early life presents a puzzle of names, households, and conflicting details. Follow the search for his father and weigh the evidence behind a proposed connection.
Join the investigation: The article asks whether the available clues justify a merge. Read it as a study of the reasoning, with the proposed relationship still a question to examine.
Records, DNA & Research Discoveries
A name in a record. A match in the results. A new direction for the search.
Explore the work behind the discoveries: gathering Guthrie records, rescuing family research, connecting DNA matches, and sharing the tools that help us ask better questions.
Published 2023 · Record collection
Pennsylvania Archives
135 volumes 16 Colonial Records + 119 Archives volumes
Finding the Guthries hidden in a vast collection.
Military service, marriages, petitions, letters, and unexpected encounters with history. Explore an ambitious effort to gather Guthrie entries and name variants, with links back to the digitized volumes.
Introduced 2026 · Growing collection
Special Collections
Royal charters. Family secrets. Unexpected Guthries.
Follow Guthrie references through Scottish and British records: charters, court books, testaments, church records, and more. Transcriptions and research notes help bring scattered evidence into reach.
Published 2022 · Later DNA discovery
Rare Book Found
What was hiding in that inherited box?
A family contribution brought W. Hardin Guthrie’s working genealogy into view, complete with edited notes and gathered family material. Explore the discovery and the digitized compilation.
What we discovered next The compiler’s Thomas Guthrie–Mildred Howell family, formerly placed in GFG2A–I, belongs to GFG5–H. Later Y-DNA overturned the old paternal placement.
Announced 2021 · Scottish records
Ayrshire Research
A parish entry could open the next generation.
Browse the Guthrie births and baptisms gathered from Ayrshire records. The Scotland resource page brings the parish reports together for reading, downloading, and comparing.
Explore the collection The parish reports cover records within the 1513–1899 collection range. The original announcement introduces the project and a sample report.
Ongoing series · Revolutionary War
Guthries & the American Revolution
Service, divided loyalties, and the records left behind.
Explore the series through its Pennsylvania and Massachusetts studies, military and civilian service, and research routes for British and Loyalist connections.
Published December 2025 · DNA snapshot
Haplogroups
Where does your paternal line fit?
Explore the article’s overview of Guthrie genetic groups, Big-Y results, and deep ancestral connections. Use it as a dated snapshot of research that continues to grow.
The story continues The article predates GFG19. Participant counts, genetic estimates, and available results can change as more people test.
Published January 2026 · GFG19
New Year, New GFG
A long wait. A new tester. A family group takes shape.
A previously unmatched Guthrie line gained a close Y-DNA match from another family. Follow the discovery that established GFG19 and opened new questions about their shared Scottish ancestry.
Published 2025 · Collaborative research
Guthrie Name Study
Bring your branch into the shared story.
Learn about the Guthrie Name Study on WikiTree and the effort to connect family profiles with sources and DNA-project context. Discover another way to make research easier to find and share.
Published 2026 · Research methods
AI in Genealogy
A useful assistant still needs a careful researcher.
Explore the possibilities and pitfalls of using artificial intelligence in family-history research, from handling information to recognizing errors and checking claims against the underlying sources.
Complete Article Index
Every post, one place. Follow the research from the first questions to the latest discoveries.
Choose a year to browse its articles, family studies, DNA announcements, and project updates. Posts are listed newest first within each year.
These links open the original posts. For later discoveries and expanded resources, follow the companion links in the topic sections above.
Index checked September 28, 2026.
202611 posts
20254 posts
20249 posts
202321 posts
- Thomas Yoner Guthrie
- The Latest
- September Updates
- Guthrie-Howell
- August Updates
- July Updates
- It’s June…Updates
- Dr. Samuel Guthrie, Jr.
- Celebrate Fathers (and Forefathers) this June
- Massachusetts Patriots
- CT/MA: Guthrie-Hickox
- The Latest
- Guthrie-Makemie
- Canadian Guthrie Families
- Pennsylvania Patriots
- Guthries in Grenada
- GFG14 Match
- Big-Y Group TimeTree
- PA Archives Series Index
- William and the Revolution
- William Guthrie of Henry KY
20228 posts
202110 posts
20209 posts
201920 posts
- Alexander Guthrie & Susannah Tatton
- Tidewater Virginia Families
- New Group: GFG15
- Beverly Guthrie & Sarah Colquitt
- GFG3 Theories: Part 2
- Holiday DNA Sales
- James Guthrie & Elizabeth Dunlap
- New Y-DNA Match
- GFG3 Theories: Part 1
- William Guthrie & Lettice Burk / Frances Wilbourn
- Legends, Myths, & Skeletons
- Woman on Fire
- Robert Guthrie & Anna Alcock
- Group Change
- Frederick Guthrie & Mollie Louallen
- New Y-DNA Match
- Lairds, Ministers, & Martyrs
- Adam Guthrie & Mary Anderson
- Let’s get started…
- Together We Discover Truth