The old book, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances, by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley (1896), on pages 341-342, derives the surname from the Middle English word for guest, Gest, and says Gist was an early form. The book lists as some examples Roger Gest in Wiltshire in 1273; Adam le Gest on the Fines Roll in the time of Edward I; and Lawrence le Gist from Somerset in the time of Edward III. 

The purpose of this project is to help families who have the surname Gist or one of its variants (Gest, Guess, Guest, etc.) with their genealogical research. It is open worldwide to those men with the surnames Gist, Gest, Guess, and Guest. This is a Y-DNA project. Only men have a Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son. Women may participate by having a male Gist, etc., relative submit a DNA sample for testing. Please click on the tabs above to view the various aspects of our project.

We strongly recommend Family Tree DNA's Big Y-700 test as the best and most thorough, reasonably priced Y-chromosome DNA test available. The 37-marker "Y-37" test is a very economical way to begin, however. One can always upgrade later. 

The standard work on the family in North America is Christopher Gist of Maryland and Some of His Descendants: 1679-1957, by Jean Muir Dorsey and Maxwell Jay Dorsey. It is well researched and documented. Buy a copy of it if you can. 

Regarding genealogy and the Gist book mentioned above, please don't jump over centuries of time and list the immigrants, Christopher Gist and Edith Cromwell, as your most distant known ancestors unless you have a very good paper trail to them supported in the book, or you have an extremely close Y-DNA test match to someone who does, via both STR (Short Tandem Repeat) and SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) testing (such as FTDNA's Big Y-700). Not everyone with the Gist, Gest, Guess, Guest surname is descended from Christopher and Edith. It would be nice if they were, but they aren't. Far better to use DNA testing to find your true ancestors than to claim the wrong ancestors and contribute to ongoing genealogical confusion.

So, please, claim ancestors only as far back as you can support the claim with solid documentation and/or DNA evidence.

Since the Gist, Gest, Guess, Guest Project is a Y-DNA project, what we are primarily interested in are SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) on the Y chromosome. Currently the best test for those is Family Tree DNA's Big Y-700. The Big Y-700 will show you where you are on the Y-chromosome phylogenetic tree and which of your matches is truly (not just apparently) closest to you. It can reveal the fine details of family branching, connect you to ancient Y-DNA test results, and may, at some point in the near future, even enable researchers to pinpoint the geographic origin of your Y-DNA haplogroup, perhaps down to the village. The "700" in the name of the test represents the added benefit of the over 700 STR (Short Tandem Repeat) markers that are also part of your test results.

Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) Testing

What is a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism?

The following definition comes from the National Institutes of Health's Genetics Home Reference web site: