Articles purporting to tell the history of the surnames Cundell and Cundall assume that the name originates in the village of Cundall in North Yorkshire, and it was partly to test this belief that the initial tests in this project were taken. The name of the village pre-dates the use of the surname by some centuries.

Testing suggests the following, as of September 2022:

There are at least five identified family groups carrying the Cundell, Cundall or variant surname who do NOT share a common patrilineal ancestor in the time since family surnames became established in the 1300s.These are:

Lineage 1:

The Cundells of Cambridgeshire, descended from JohnCundell/Condal, born about 1750 place unknown, the Cundalls of Hertfordshire, descended from John Cundall born 1727 Ware and the Cundles of Hertfordshire, descended from Henry Cundell born about 1725 Widford or Hunsdon. These families share a common male ancestor, probably born in the early 1600s, probably inHertfordshire or Essex. They belong to haplogroup R-S1051 and their progenitors probably arrived in Britain around 2600BC.

Lineage 2:

The Cundells of Hungerford, Berkshire, descended from William Cundell, born about 1700 probably in London, the Gundills of Pontefract,Yorkshire, descended from John Gundill/Cundill/Cundall born 1754 Pontefract andthe Cundiths of Settrington, Yorkshire. Further testing is under way to attempt to determine the date of the common ancestor to these families. They belong to haplogroup R-Z253 and their progenitors probably arrived in Britain around 2300BC.

Lineage 3:

Cundells descended from Johannis (John) Cundell born about1650 probably Alne, Yorkshire. Like Group 2, they belong to Haplogroup R-Z253 and their progenitors probably arrived in Britain around 2300BC, but they do not share a common ancestor with Group 2 more recently than about 1800BC.

Lineage 4:

The Cundalls of Kirkby Malzeard, descended from Robert Cundall born 1728 and Margaret Hardcastle. They belong to haplogroup R-U106 and their most recent branching point from other testers appears to be about 650AD.The testers from which they branched show a strong preponderance ofScandinavian origins, and one of their upstream haplotypes has been found in Viking archaeological remains, suggesting that this group’s progenitor is likely to have arrived in Britain either as a Viking invader or as a settler during the period of the Danelaw, or, somewhat less likely, as part of the Norman invasion from 1066.

Lineage 5:

The Cundalls of Nun Monkton, descended from Edward Cundall born 1787. Further testing is required to determine the origins of this group, but the test results we have do not match anybody else in the project.

The reason for so many unrelated family groups sharing the same relatively uncommon surname may simply lie in the locative nature of the name; each family may descend from a different unrelated man whose origins lie in the village of Cundall. Alternatively, it may be that one or more of thefamily groups acquired the surname from a female ancestor; there are known descendants of both the Cambridgeshire Cundells and the Nun Monkton Cundalls whose surname comes from a female ancestor and who, therefore, do not share Y-DNA with their family group.

There are a number of Cundell families in Ireland as well as throughout the Americas and Australasia. Some of these originate with one of the above groups, others may form new ancestral lines. It is hoped that members of the families can be encouraged to take Y-DNA tests to expand our understanding of these relationships.