Mark David Drew-Smythe and James
Oliver Meade Smythe - ? cousins in the line of "SMYTHE of BARBAVILLA" (Westmeath, Ireland)
Two Smythe families - DNA PROJECT - a workout for the family genes ...
The Context of this research - Captain Richard David Somerset Drew-Smythe (deceased 1987) and his younger brother, John Roderick Drew-Smythe (deceased 1995) - during their lifetimes - and independently of each other - maintained to their children that the Drew-Smythe Smythe line was linked to the Smythe line of Pat Smythe, Patricia Rosemary Smythe, the Olympic equestrian.
If this is the case, the "Family Vault" male line Smythe is also related to the Smith and Smyth/e families of Durham, Yorkshire and Ireland and so encompasses the ancestry of those lines. It is possible that these lines also lead back to the "ancient family of Smith" of Cuerdale in Lancashire and/or to the Carrington family whose ancestor, Michael, was the Standard Bearer to King Richard I during the 3rd. Crusade (1191) and whose descendant changed his name from Carrington to Smith/Smyth for safety reasons after a spell in exile during the early decades of the 1400s. He died in England in 1446. The ensuing struggles culminated in the bloody - family extinguishing - conflict between the Houses of York and Lancaster which eventually saw Henry Tudor victorious and crowned as Henry VII in 1485.
James Smythe's family records trace back to the Barbavilla line. An ancestor of this line, John Smythe, was a brother of Henry Meade Smythe (1787-1862) - known as "Tiger Smythe" - of the same line as Pat Smythe and her brother, Canon Ronald Smythe who, to date, July 2004, is still unable to confirm any anecdotal or written evidence of any relatedness between his line and the Smythe line of this "Family Vault".
In the meantime, David Smyth,
whose line descends from the Hutchinson Smyth branch of
the family, places his common ancestor with James Smythe
as Ralph Smyth - of
'Ballymacash', Co. Antrim - known as Ralph the Tanner. For David Smyth's
comprehensive history of the Smyth/e family, with
emphasis on his particular family line from
"Generation 11" of this Irish line, click on
the "Rosedale spot" adjacent. For further investigation on the
Carrington theory, see also David Smyth's notes on the Smyth/e and
Carrington lines. These appear in the Endnotes to his research.
In the
closing years of his life, Captain 'Dicky' Drew-Smythe
insisted more and more on the use of the third forename,
'Somerset' when dealing with official documents.
'Somerset' as a forename is common to both Drew and
Smythe ancestors but is most clearly marked in the Meade
Smythe
line of
the Smythe family to which he and his brother, John,
claimed kinship. Additionally, the use of place names as
a second or third forename is/was not uncommon in
Smith/Smyth/e genealogy -used as a 'distinguisher' where
numerous family branches exist(ed). 
It would appear that the lineage of James Oliver Meade Smythe (click on the adjacent unicorn head) comes as close as possible to being a potential DNA match for the reputed "cousin" status claimed by Richard David Somerset Drew-Smythe and his brother, John, in connection with the line of Pat Smythe, descended from the Smyth/es of Barbavilla in Ireland - and thus descended from Smith/Smyth/e of Yorkshire and Durham. For this reason, and as a first for this site, James has kindly consented to take part in a DNA comparison analysis with Mark David Drew-Smythe as the representative of the Smythe line of this Family Vault - through the services of Oxford Ancestors which organisation states:
"For our Y-Clan™
service, we read ten elements of your yDNA fingerprint
and build up a signature. By comparing it to thousands of
others in our database, obtained from throughout the
world, we are able, in most cases, to deduce your
paternal clan and your ancient ancestral father. Not only
will we be able to tell you from which ancient clan
father you are descended, we will also give you some
information as to when and where he lived. The genetic
elements of your signature also change over the
generations and by comparing your genetic signature with
those of others it is possible to tell, on the balance of
probability, how closely you are related.
In many countries, surnames are also passed down from
father to son, just like the Y-Chromosome. This means
that you also can use your Y-Clan™ results to
investigate your paternal lines alongside more
traditional genealogical sources in a very powerful
combination. For example, you will be able to compare
your Y-Clan™ results with those of other men with
the same surname to see whether you share a genetic
connection. Our Chairman and founder, Prof Sykes, was the
first scientist to establish this connection between
surnames and Y-Chromosomes.
All men carry a Y-chromosome in every cell of their
bodies, which is inherited exclusively from their
fathers. Indeed, it is the Y-chromosome that makes men
male! We despatch directly to you by post a Sampling Kit
containing a small brush that we ask you to rub on the
inside of your cheek to collect, painlessly, your DNA,
which we extract and profile on receipt of the brush.
Your DNA is made up of a string of chemicals whose names
are abbreviated to the letters A, C, G and T. At
particular points on the Y-chromosome, the exact number
of letters can vary. The profiling process determines the
exact number of letters at particular points or markers;
in the case of our Y-Line™ analysis, ten markers,
and these form your ten-digit Y-Clan™ signature."
- About this project ...
- Gratitude is extended to Marie Kitchin , Senior Scientific Officer at Oxford Ancestors for this genetic advice.
"We are not currently running a specific Special Names Project for the name of Smith/Smythe. You may wish to try Cyndi's List for others with this surname who may have already had a Y-chromosome analysis performed or who may be able to give other information. We do have 16 males with the surname of Smith and 4 with the surname of Smyth on our Y-Line database. When our Y-Line database is released for use by our Y-Line customers, people will be able to search the database on haplotype, location and ancient paternal ancestor information. Additionally, people will also be able to search on surname and contact e-mail address. However, these latter two pieces of information will only be made available for people who have chosen to make their own personal details available to others via the database."
The caveat ...
"When comparing Y-Line signatures, any conclusions drawn rely on statistical analysis of the results. This means it is only possible to say that the relatedness between two men is 'highly likely', or 'likely' or 'unlikely'. This analysis will not provide absolute proof. If two branches of a family are related, the results will also allow you to work out approximately when a common paternal ancestor existed. However, this time estimate is not very accurrate in individual cases as the range of possible times is very large. This is because on average there is a 2% (1in 50) chance that a father and son will differ at one of the ten markers. So, if a generation time is taken as 25 years, you would expect this to happen, on average, once every 1250 years. Therefore, although this may be used to provide supporting evidence to other research indicating when a Common Paternal Ancestor is likely to have existed, it is not accurate enough to use it as the main basis for such a hypothesis."
In response to a question of any
potential analysis of Smyth in the maternal line of this site - see 
William Smyth - Apothecary of Shrewsbury, whose
daughter was Corbetta Smyth, mother of
the children of Lord William Manners, 2nd son of the 2nd.
Duke of Rutland, Maria states ...
"The MatriLine analysis is
designed to provide information on our ancient maternal
ancestors who lived over 10,000 years ago. It does
not provide any information on more
recent ancestry, and it is not sufficiently
discriminatory in the vast majority of cases to be able
to use the result to identify a single maternal line.
This is because many people may possess the same
mitochondrial DNA sequence. For example,
approximately 47% of people in Europe belong in the clan
Helena. Although there are sub groups within this
clan with slightly different DNA sequences, it still
means that many people will share exactly the same
sequence. So, if you have the same sequence as
someone else it does not necessarily mean that you are
closely related, although you are likely to have shared a
common maternal ancestor over ten thousand years ago.
Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA and inheritance of the
Y-chromosome are not connected. The MatriLine service
analyses only our mitochondrial DNA which is inherited
exclusively through the maternal line.
This is why we are able to trace our mitochondrial DNA
back to one 'ancestral mother'. Any children inherit
their mitochondrial DNA from their mother only. They
inherit no mitochondrial DNA from their father. This
means that all children (male or female) will belong in
the same clan as their mother. A father may well belong
in a different clan to his children. Similarly the
Y-chromosome is passed from father to son. Females
do not possess a Y-chromosome. This is why the
Y-Line service would only show a connection between
family branches if the descendants to be analysed have an
uninterrupted male-male link back to a Common Paternal
Ancestor (CPA). For these reasons it would not be
possible to say if the Smith/Smythe family of the
maternal line were one and the same as the paternal line."
Use the Unicorn link adjacent to access the "Smyth/e Index."
