KATHERINE COBB is a member of AGRA based in Somerset
DEBBIE KENNETT is the author of DNA and Social Networking
ANTONY MARR is a former deputy registrar and the chair of AGRA
REBECCA PROBERT is professor of law at the University of Exeter
JAYNE SHRIMPTON is a professional dress historian and portrait specialist
ALAN STEWART is a family history writer, and author of Grow Your Own Family Tree
PHIL TOMASELLI is a military family history expert, and wrote Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors
SARAH WILLIAMS is the editor of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
Could a DNA test help me with my Curtis brick wall?
Q My father’s surname was Avery, but when I started doing my family tree I discovered that his real father was a George Curtis. I’ve managed to get back as far as the early 1800s on my paternal line, to a William Curtis born c1801 in Little Bourton, Oxfordshire. He married Elizabeth Hazlewood, but I can’t get back another generation. Would a DNA test help?
Tim Avery
DNA testing could certainly help with this scenario, but there are no guarantees of immediate success. It works by putting you in a matching database, so you are reliant on the right people being in the database to allow you to confirm or refute relationships.
