HERE'S WHAT THE OVERTON  DNA PROJECT MEANS TO YOU, THE OVERTON FAMILY GENEALOGIST:  If you locate a common ancestor in any one of our DNA participants' family files, you can be assured that whatever "proven" documentation and research that is available through that participant (or any fellow Clan member) is absolutely pertinent to your research.  Equally importantly, you can discard  any and all  "proven" Overton research that pertains to the members of the other Clans.

The Family  Relationship verses Genetic Relationship

Surnames have been used for only about 800 years but even today the use is not universal: Icelanders, Tibetans, Burmese, Javanese and many people groups in East Africa do not use family names. In England, surnames were adopted in the 13^th and 14^th centuries but the Scottish and Welsh people did not start adopting surnames until the 17^thcentury and was not widely adopted until the mid-19^th century. Both the Scots and Welsh practiced a naming system known as "patronymics, "which means the child's surname is the father's given name.  For example, John Morris could be the son of Morris Rhys, who was the son of Rhys James. Also, surnames change through time due to a variety of reasons and were often times chosen as a reflection of an occupation, a location, ornamental or a personal characteristic.  Thus, an Overton male may be more closely related to a “Smith” male, for example, than another Overton male living in the same neighborhood.  When we study the early history of the Overton Surname in American, we find cases where a family will change their surname, for example from Howerton to Overton. We also find Overton families adopting strays, for example, children surviving epidemics like Typhoid Fever, and left homeless. Then of course we have the cases where we have children born out of wedlock.

Why is this important for the study of DNA and the Overton surname? 

DNA results if interpreted correctly can validate or invalidate the genetic relationship between two people but, and this is important, DNA results cannot invalidate the family relationship. Here I am defining family in its broadest definition: a family consists of two or more people with the same Surnames, related by birth, marriage, or adoption (a legal adoption not required) and residing in the same housing unit. The family relationship can only be validated through documentation and family tradition whereas the genetic relationship can only be validated through DNA testing.

In the study of Surnames, the Y chromosomal DNA test (Y-DNA) is used to test males as the Y chromosome is only passed down the male line from father to son. Tiny chemical markers on the Y chromosome create a distinctive pattern, known as haplotype, that distinguishes one male lineage from another. When two men have the same markers, this indicates they share a common ancestor, and the greater number of markers tested and matched, the higher the probability they share a common ancestor within a period of time. Combining the number of markers tested between two men with the same Surname increases the probability significantly.

Pre-Revolutionary  History of the Overton Surname in America

Before the Revolutionary War most of the historical records were  maintained by the County Court systems. Tax, land, court records were the most prevalent, and in most cases where these records survived are maintained today by the related State Archives. Since most of these records are not consolidated into central repositories, though this is improving as more private enterprises are scanning these records and making them available on the internet, researching these records require access to the local repositories and is very labor intensive. For years, various Overton researchers have been gathering this information and passing it onto OvertonsOnly (overtonsonly@hotmail.com) to be consolidated and made available to future researchers: to access this information see the section below .