However, many of the above surnames were also very common elsewhere in the north of England!  There were also many other surnames that appeared in parish records before 1800 and some on the above list disappeared.  The important thing is for you to provide a documented pedigree showing that your ancestors were established in Ravenstonedale before 1800 to be included in the DNA project.

yDNA - so far we have a total of 27 sets of yDNA results for testers representing the surnames coloured blue on the above list - ADAMTHWAITE, BECK, BELL, SWINBANK, FAWCETT and FOTHERGILL.  We welcome yDNA testers with any of the above surnames, though for this part of the project you will need to be a male and carry the Ravenstonedale surname yourself.

Our FAMILY FINDER test results represent a number of Ravenstonedale surnames, as most of us who have tested have ancestors from several old R'dale families as a result of the many marriages which took place between different families in the parish in the years before 1800! As well as all the blue surnames, all those shown in green on the above list appear in the family trees of one or more of the 49 Family Finder testers in our project to date.  Family Finder tests examine your autosomal DNA, so for this part of the project you can be male or female and your Ravenstonedale ancestors can appear in any branch of your family tree.

Eventually, I aim to provide links to a page of information about each of the surnames represented in our project, including abbreviated descendancy charts for the main Ravenstonedale families.

To date, we have individual FAMILY pages for the following lines (click on the link to visit the page):

• ADAMTHWAITE

• ALDERSON

• BECK

• BOUSFIELD

• BRADBERRY

• FOTHERGILL

• HEWETSON

• NELSON

• SWINBANK

When can we add YOUR Ravenstonedale surname to this list? (Just send me some details about your Ravenstondale ancestors: perhaps a descendancy chart, old family photos or images of where they lived in the parish, stories, anything that would be interesting for other visitors to the website who share your Ravenstonedale surname)