The Vance/Vans/Wentz surname project was created to help members analyze their DNA tests to further their genealogy goals, and to organize the analysis of DNA testing to learn more about the origins of the Vance surname. While we use the "Vance" form of the surname for ease of reference, we do include the related forms of the surname and origins of the surname like Vans, Vaus, Vaux, or Wentz and their variants. The project pages are laid out as follows: - Overview: This overview and the information available on each page. - Background: A short explanation of the Vance surname and our connection to the Vance Family Association. - Goals: More details about the project's purpose and goals. - News: A continuously-updated summary about how much we know about each subgroup of the Project. - Results: Detailed information about each subgroup in the Project. The size of the project and some information about its members can also be found on the Project Statistics page, and the detailed Y-STR results for each member of the Project who has elected to share them publicly is available in the DNA Results section. If you are considering whether DNA testing can help you in researching your Vance lineage, please browse our Results pages and the analysis that we have available on the various Vance sub-Groups. You may already know that you connect to one of these Groups but otherwise a DNA test may help you fit into one of the existing Groups or you may create a new one. The tests we use in the Vance project are Y-DNA tests, not autosomal, because the Y-chromosome is carried by men only and passed along nearly unchanged from fathers to sons which is also usually how the Vance surname was passed down the generations. So DNA tests which will be useful to the project's analysis need to come from men descended in a direct male line (father to son to son to son to son etc) from a Vance man. Generally but not always these men will also have the Vance surname today. If you either fit that description or can find a man related to you who fits that description, we can help with the analysis of a Y-DNA test taken by yourself or that person. We suggest using Family Tree DNA because their Y-DNA tests are most easily integrated into the Vance surname project's analysis. Of the currently-available Y-DNA tests offered by Family Tree DNA, the Big Y500 or Big Y700 is the most useful to our analysis but also the most expensive. The Y111 test is the next test which we suggest for people who wish to take a Y-DNA test and want to get the most out of their genetic genealogy investment. If you are only interested in which Group your Vance lineage belongs to, we can determine that through a Y37 test; however it will be unlikely that we can place you definitively on that Group's paternal line tree. At this time, we do not recommend anything less than a Y37 test for use in the Vance DNA Project. Other companies offer Y-DNA testing and we welcome those results as well, however we need to integrate those results manually. If you have results that you'd like us to integrate manually or you would like additional help, please contact our project administrator listed to the left of this page.