Research & Resources
Guthrie Research Tree
One tree. Many Guthrie families.
Find a familiar family, follow a migration, or explore a new branch. The Guthrie Research Tree brings together lineages from the Guthrie DNA Project and many additional families researched around the world.
Distinct family lines retain their own identities. Some branches are well documented; others remain active investigations. Follow the attached sources and research notes to see what supports each connection.
Biographical Sketches
Individual lives. Stories in the records.
Meet the people behind the names. These sketches follow Guthrie lives through public service, family, faith and the records they left behind, keeping documented history and unresolved questions in view.
Sir David Guthrie of Guthrie
Royal servant · Diplomat · Landholder
Step into medieval Scotland and follow Sir David through royal service, diplomacy and the acquisition of lands that shaped the Guthrie family’s history.
Read biography →Rev. James Guthrie
Minister of Stirling · Covenanter · Martyr
Explore the life and convictions of the Stirling minister executed in 1661, alongside the continuing investigation into his family origins and possible connection to the Guthries of Memus.
Read biography →Rev. William Guthrie
Minister of Fenwick · Author · Covenanter
Discover the Fenwick minister’s family connections, pastoral life and enduring writing, set against the religious upheavals of seventeenth-century Scotland.
Read biography →Family Focus
Real families. Unanswered questions. New connections.
Family Focus follows Guthrie lineages searching for their place among the Guthrie Family Groups. Some have found a genetic connection. Others still need the descendant—or document—that could change the story.
Adam Guthrie & Mary Anderson
From Ireland to Kentucky, this family’s origins prompted competing theories. Y-DNA has now placed the lineage in Guthrie Family Group 7.
Formerly ungrouped → GFG7
Alexander Guthrie & Susannah Tatton
Their story leads from Scotland to New Brunswick. A qualifying direct-line male Guthrie descendant could help identify the family’s paternal connections.
Ungrouped · Y-DNA needed
Guthrie Blog Topics
Family legends meet the evidence.
Start with a story that catches your interest. Follow it into the documents, DNA discoveries and unanswered questions behind Guthrie family history.
The Seven Brothers Legend
Seven Guthrie men appear in a familiar immigration story. Genetic evidence separates the proposed list into different paternal groups. What remains of the legend?
Investigate the legend →Edinburgh’s Ironmongers
Robert, John and James: examine the gaps and competing explanations in the three-brothers tradition associated with GFG2A.
Follow the theory →Scots in Rotterdam
Trade, military service and exile carried Scots to the Dutch Republic. Explore this setting in the search for Guthrie connections.
Explore the story →Territorial Profile Series:
“Guthrie of…”
Old pedigrees. Newly recovered relatives.
Follow Scotland’s Guthrie families through their lands, inheritances and surviving records. See what happens when familiar pedigrees are checked against the evidence.
The children an old pedigree left out.
The inherited claim William Guthrie of Memus left no male issue.
What the records reveal Alexander is explicitly identified as his eldest son. Annas is documented as his daughter.
Other profiles reunite Eassie & Hiltoun as one family, untangle estate successions and recover overlooked relatives. Each includes Most Wanted Documents that could help answer the next question.
Mistaken Identities
Familiar names. Unexpected mix-ups.
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.
One real case: the planter and the shipmaster.
Husband of Elizabeth Baskett
A planter recorded in Christ Church Parish. Neither “Captain” nor the middle name “Montrose” is supported by his documented identity.
Master of the Ewe and Lamb
A shipmaster whose vessel appears in colonial records. His occupation and identity should not be transferred to the Middlesex planter.
Explore the cases, compare the evidence and take supported corrections back to your own tree.
Pennsylvania Archives · Guthrie Index & Entries
Finding the Guthries in 135 Volumes
Volumes
Volumes · Series I–IX
Guthrie Finding Aid
Some Guthries went to war. Others married, petitioned, held office—or escaped captivity. Their stories are scattered across a vast collection of Pennsylvania’s published historical records.
This project takes on an enormous task: searching volume by volume for every Guthrie reference, including the many ways clerks spelled the name. The resulting Guthrie Index & Entries brings those discoveries together, with page references and links that lead you into the records.
A name on a muster roll, a frontier petition, a letter or a council decision could be the clue that puts your family in a particular place, reveals an unexpected event, or sends your research in a new direction.
Special Collections
Scottish & British Research Gateway
Royal Charters. Family Secrets. Unexpected Guthries.
A royal grant. An apprentice’s father. A petition after a killing. One detail can open a new chapter in a family’s story. Explore Guthrie discoveries drawn from medieval charters, courtrooms, town records and the affairs of kings and queens.
Find
Track Guthrie names through scattered manuscripts and vast published record series.
Transcribe
Bring the record into view: names, relationships, lands and the wording that matters.
Translate
Make Latin and older Scots passages readable, with translations where needed.
Interpret
Explore what the evidence reveals about Guthrie families and their lives.
What might a centuries-old record reveal?
A family connection missing from a pedigree. The transfer of an estate. A Guthrie caught up in royal service, religious conflict or a criminal trial.
Follow the references and explore this growing collection. Your next breakthrough may begin here.
Recommended Reading
Pull up a chair. There’s a Guthrie story waiting.
Your next clue could be between the covers.
A family history may preserve a forgotten letter. A memoir can bring an ancestor’s world to life. The right research guide might help you finally make sense of that puzzling DNA match.
Browse Guthrie family histories, biographies, Scottish and Scotch-Irish history, and practical genealogy guides—with notes to help you choose and links to digital copies where available. There’s room for a little Guthrie literature, too.
Read for the story. Follow the clues. Use published pedigrees as starting points, then check important family connections against the original records.
Research by Location
Start where your Guthries left a paper trail.
A parish, a county, a place remembered in a family story: start with the location you know and explore the research gathered there. Here are three doors into the collection.
Could an Ayrshire baptism hold your next clue?
Collection date range
Explore downloadable research arranged by parish, including Ayr, Fenwick, Kilmarnock and other Ayrshire communities.
The Scotland page also gathers historical reading and links to genealogical records.
Explore Scotland →Take the search down to the county.
Chester, Cumberland, Washington, Westmoreland and more: follow the county links to explore Guthrie research closer to home.
Explore Pennsylvania →Which Virginia Guthries are yours?
Begin with Middlesex, Accomack, Augusta, Goochland or another county. Place is a starting point for separating families who share the Guthrie name.
Explore Virginia →Where else did the family go? Browse all 50 U.S. states and international destinations including Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean.
Revolutionary War Series
1775–1783 · Thirteen colonies, Britain and Canada
The Revolution reached far beyond the battlefield. Explore Guthrie soldiers, frontier defenders and the people whose work kept wartime communities going—through the records that tell their stories.
Continental & Militia
Soldiers & Officers
Enlisted men, militia companies, Continental troops and commissioned officers traced through surviving service and pension records.
Western Frontier
Rangers & Defenders
Ranging companies, frontier militia and local defenders whose service unfolded far from the better-known eastern battlefields.
Civil Service
Community & Government
Justices, officials, commissioners and other civilians whose documented contributions helped sustain the Patriot cause and wartime communities.
Intelligence & Support
Spies, Suppliers & Other Service
Look beyond regiment lists to intelligence work, supplies and other contributions revealed in accounts, correspondence and supporting records.
Begin with Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Then explore guides for all thirteen colonies, British service, Loyalist experiences and Canadian connections—including the families whose lives changed with the war.
Tidbits
Small questions. Useful answers. Unexpected discoveries.
What did that old occupation mean? How are those cousins related? And why does a place halfway around the world bear the Guthrie name? Dip into the practical guides, research tools and curiosities collected in Tidbits.
Old Jobs & Trades
Archaic Occupations
Met a baxter, wright or cordwainer in the records? Search unfamiliar occupations and historical designations, including Scottish and Scots terms.
Birthdays & Lifespans
Age & Date Calculator
Work backward from a gravestone age, calculate age at death or estimate a lifespan when only years are known.
Cousins & Inheritance
DNA & Relationships
Untangle cousin relationships, explore shared centimorgans and learn how Y-DNA, Big-Y and inherited DNA help answer different family questions.
People & Places
Claim to Fame
Meet remarkable Guthries and descendants, then explore the towns, mountains, waterways and other places carrying the Guthrie name.
Follow whatever catches your curiosity. There’s more to browse: surname variations, naming traditions, genealogy terminology and ways to connect with other researchers.
Mary Gray May and her son Richard H. May had in the past did a lot of research on my wife’s family.