About the General Fund

Y-DNA Testing Assistance Available:  Please apply to the Admin stating why and what is being applied for.
FTDNA manages a General Fund for projects -- donations are held by FTDNA for use in the project.  The Admin makes the decisions along with noting the conditions (if any) as stipulated by the donor. The General Fund for the Williams project is used for male Y-DNA testing. Donors may contribute to the project's general fund to assist with the cost of future testing. Donors may designate which a specific ancestor the donation is to assist. You do NOT have to designate a specific testing interest when you donate - donations without a specified interest are used for testing at the discretion of the project administrator. If you think you descend from a male line there may be funding available to help defer the cost of testing.  If you donate, please let the Admin know - FTDNA has ceased alerting Admins of a donation.

If You Want Assistance from The General Fund

There is general assistance available to defray the cost of Y-DNA testing. If you would like assistance please contact the group administrator. 

1. Fund Purpose and Use: The primary goal of the Williams DNA Project is to identify relationships among participants, and to map the various worldwide Williams family lines using genetic Y-DNA testing. The purpose of the Williams DNA Testing Fund is to provide financial assistance, by means of privately donated monies, to both existing and potential participants who want to expand the Williams DNA Project but cannot afford the cost of testing because of their financial state. The money in the fund can only be applied to the purchase of Williams DNA testing kits with Family Tree DNA (FTDNA).

2. Ownership: The fund recipients will be expected to maintain their personal FTDNA Home page.

3. Applicable Tests: Funding will only be provided for Y37 marker Y-DNA testing as these tests are the primary tools used to further the project goals. Other tests, are more specialised and by themselves do not contribute to the project goals.  But apply for aid if you can also contribute.  Note that shipping and handling fees are not covered.

4. Method of Payment: The recipient will not receive money directly from the fund - this (and the order itself) is all handled by the Admin.

5. Donation Based: This is a donation based endeavour and is only possible because of the generosity of others. None of the money will have any commercial "strings attached"; i.e., there will be no expectation of use or endorsement of any commercial service or product tied to either the actual donation or disbursement. Put simply, this fund exists only on a purely philanthropic basis. It is hoped that, when possible, people will continue to add to the fund so that is does not become depleted.

Donations can be made a number of ways - credit card, PayPal and via cheque to FTDNA with instructions as to which project it is to go. Donations can be made publicly, anonymously, and in honour of another. 

To donate, click on the word in the project's landing page

6. Willingness to Participate: There is a clear relationship between traditional genealogy and genealogical DNA testing.  Prospective recipients must be willing to contribute their own information. To reinforce the necessity of information sharing, participants who seek assistance from the donation fund will be required to provide the project administrator with as detailed a pedigree (paternal lineage only) as the recipient has.  Also, the recipient will be required to sign the FTDNA release form, allowing FTDNA to compare test results with others.

7. Time Between Assistance Applications: In an effort to prolong the availability of the fund and to curb any possible abuse, participants will be limited to one grant per year. 

8. Administration and Dispersion of Funds: The actual fund and the money it contains are kept and maintained by FTDNA. The administration of the Williams DNA Testing Fund and the dispersion of any of its monies are at the complete discretion of the fund administrator. The administrator also has the ability and responsibility to make any necessary changes to the way the fund is administered.

9. Publication of Funds, Donors, Recipients and Fund Status: In order to provide a minimal level of visibility and oversight to the fund, the information may be requested from the admin.

10. Requesting Funds: Because the fund is for those in financial need, a prospective recipient must provide the following.

Update 6 September 2015  - the project reconstruction has been completed.

According to 'Family Names and their Story'  by S. Baring-Gould, MA, the surname WILLIAMS is a sire-name (patronymics).  From whence comes WILLIAM, WILLIAMSON, WILSON, WILLS, WILKINS, WYLIE, WILLETT, GILLOT, WELLINGS, BILL, BILSON.  However, let us also remember that in the UK, the metronymics of the naming system.  Although many jump to the conclusion that a male child named for his mother's family assumes illegitimate status, this is not necessarily so.  For example, a woman named Wilhelmina in a legitimate marriage and giving birth to a male child of that marriage, that male child may have been known as Williamson simply because his birth earned him the right to inherit his mother's properties.

A further point to consider is that in the UK, the ending of a name in ston  was eventually shortened to  son.

This may go a long way towards explaining why there are so many distinctly separate lineages within men with the same surname.   Take for example, the different Haplogroups, that is A, C, E, G, the two Is (I1 and I2), J, N, and the two Rs (R1b and R1a) and T.  And this is without taking into consideration the numerous haplotypes of the numerous families represented in these Haplogroups!

William  was apparently of Germanic origin   Willahelm   and with the arrival of the first recognised Norman King of England, it came into popular use. 
See the frequency of these in the Domesday Book
http://opendomesday.org/name/?indexChar=W

In terms of the current use of the WILLIAMS surname, the UK 1881 Census of Cornwall has the highest number of families with this surname.  In Wales it is overtaken only by JONES.
In the American 1790 Census of those areas which took a census, it also vies with JONES for top place for commonality.