u/oncomingstorm777

Hi everyone,

I just got back my Y-111 results from FTDNA and was hoping to get some advice on interpreting them. I did the test to try to help break through a wall in my Smith patrilineal ancestry. Based on records that I've found, I can trace the paper trail back to the 1820s in TN, with a William A. Smith born c. 1795.

However, on the Y-DNA 111, I only have Smith results at the 12 marker level, with no Smiths at 25/37/67/111. That being said, there are no shortage of matches at each level. The large majority of these are Johnson/Johnston.

Intriguingly, I did get 1 exact match at the 111 level, which was a last name L--- (censoring out of caution since the descendent is living), and looking at the user's tree, his direct patrilineal line includes the husband of my 3rd-great grand-aunt, and she was the child of the William A. Smith I mentioned above.

Family lore has the Smith side immigrating from England one generation before William A Smith, but I don't have the records to support that. However, I suppose name changes could have occurred around then.

If I am understanding this correctly, there is either inaccurate paternity listed in the records, with someone in that L--- line actually being the father of one of my male line? Or there was some common ancestor of the Smith and L--- lines, which preceded one or both of those lines changing surnames? And even accounting for that, there was probably a change from Johnston/Johnson at some point? I'm still very new to all this, so any advice on research directions to take to help sort this out would be greatly appreciated. I am also curious if the Y700 test would be likely to be helpful or not. Thanks!

I’m currently enjoying reading through the History of Middle Earth series and am just about to finish volume 3. I like how things are ordered fairly chronologically but know that HoME specifically excludes the Hobbit.

Is it worth switching to read The History of the Hobbit (Rateliff) between specific HoME volumes, or does it work better just sticking with HoME and doing HotH after? I know the Hobbit book was published much later, but I was wondering if people who had read both had any advice. Thanks!