Family trees based on documentary records are great, but surviving records have their limitations, which is where DNA comes in. We are lucky that so many family trees have been published for Travis, Travers and related surnames* - there are about a dozen large UK Travis families which have published family trees that start before 1600, and about the same number of US Travis families with published family trees starting before 1800. Many living Travises will be related to one or more of these families, and we seek to make full use of these family trees as well as DNA. DNA testing has come a long way and can now help to fill in gaps in the documentary records. The Y chromosome is inherited only from father to son, and so is perfect for researching a surname. Whilst you have 32 great great great grandparents, your Y chromosome (or your father's if you are female) came from only one of them. For more on Y-DNA testing see the “Background” tab. As we gather Y chromosome DNA results in the Travis group we can use them to connect relatives together, and see if they can be connected to one of the two dozen well documented longstanding Travis families from the UK & US. As more test results become available, we are building a much more complete picture of Travis family history and our place within it. An early success of Y-DNA testing was the discovery that the Travis family descended from Asa Travis of Ohio around 1800, are all in fact descended from the line of Garrett Travis who lived in Westchester County, New York in the 1630s, bringing these two published family trees together as one. Recently it has been discovered using Y-DNA testing that the Travers family who have been in County Cork, Ireland from the 1580s shares a common male-line ancestor with the descendants of William Travers who was in Maryland from about 1663 and with the descendants of Matthew Travers who married in southwest Lancashire in 1738. The details of how exactly these three branches connect are now being worked out. More surprises await discovery – come and join us! * Although this is the Travis group, we cover all related surnames and their variations, including Travers.