dynastyDB could be considered a tool solely for the use in ‘one name studies’ but this is not the case. To quote from the Guild of One-Name Studies: ‘A one-name study is a project researching all occurrences of a surname, as opposed to a particular pedigree (ancestors of one person) or descendancy (descendants of one person or couple).’ dynastyDB tries to do a lot more than that in that it tries to determine the relationship between the individuals and recognise the major genealogical events in each individual’s life.
The similarity between the ‘one name study’ and what I call the ’single name yDNA study’ is that it all revolves round the male. Sorry girls, but the nature of the Y chromosome and the social/cultural habit of maintaining a surname in the male of the species (at least in the UK) makes this a stronger case for the study of families.
The ‘one name study’ is about the incidence of a surname at a particular point in time which can then be compared with a study at another point in time to make assumptions about various things such as surname origins, population growth and population movement. A popular source of this data is Cencus records.
The ‘Single Name yDNA’ study adds another dimension to the one name study. Surname data is collected over an extended period (from which a snapshot can be taken for a one name study) which requires that the individual (to avoid duplication) is identified in some way. The recording of the existance of an individual is usually by some event such as birth or marriage. As most individuals will have a number of events in their lifetime, it is necessary to attach the events to individuals.
The result of this is that basic family trees can be created. However, there will be many breaks between families that are the result of connections not being available via the standard genelogical records. By intelligently adding selected yDNA records to the collected data, it is then possible to tell if two families are connected in some way. A reasonable estimate of how far back the families are connected is possible. It is also possible to extend that even further to the earliest settlers/residences of the English Isles based on general DNA data available. How’s that for family history?
In the case of dynastyDB, this data would need to be verified as the trees are generated by computer logic in most parts. However, by adding yDNA data, family connections can be verified further leaving the interested human to create a fully documented family tree.