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Family Tree DNA - Y-DNA Surname Projects - Letter J

JAMES DNA Study Results

The goal of the JAMES Surname Project is to distinguish between JAMES ancestral lines, worldwide. Any reasonable spelling variant is included.

JAMES Y-DNA Project (FamilyTreeDNA)

The JAMES surname is the 44th most common surname in the UK and the 71st most common surname in the US, and occurs in similar frequencies in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In fact, the JAMES surname is growing in incidence and is more common in both the UK and in the US than it was 100 years ago. This is true not only because JAMES surname was adopted independently by many different clans throughout the British Isles during the late middle ages, but because it continues to be adopted throughout the English-speaking world by new clans right up to the present day. The purpose of this JAMES Y-DNA Surname Project is to help sort out all the discrete James clans which have arisen independently since the adoption of surnames began about 800 years ago, and to assist genealogists to coordinate this newly available genetic research with the existing documentary evidence.

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