Tryon DNA Projects and Resources

Profile managers: Michael Tryon [send private message] and Michael Maranda [send private message]

Tryon Surname Y-DNA Project

Here we'll provide an overview of the state of Tryon DNA research and link to the main resources. We'll also be happy to offer guidance in getting your Tryon DNA tests linked to wikitree.

All people inherit two chromosomes that determine their sex; one from their mother and one from their father. Only men inherit their father’s Y chromosome and therefore it follows the same path of inheritance as their direct paternal line. The Y chromosome does not undergo recombination and so is inherited as an exact match with the exception of mutations. Y-DNA testing (Y-37 at FTDNA) uses STR markers which are places where your genetic code has a variable number of repeated parts which can mutate very slowly over many generations. By testing multiple markers we get a distinctive pattern of results which form a signature for a paternal lineage. Limitations of this technique are that it primarily only indicates a common ancestor in the time range of a few hundred years. A more advanced study of Y-DNA (Big Y at FTDNA) looks at 1.3 million SNP mutations to more accurately define specific lineages. SNPs are single point mutations that are reliably inherited to all later generations. This enables us to define lineages within the descendants of William of Wethersfield, allowing us to break through documentary brick walls.

All Y-37 results so far indicate that we in America are all descended from William Tryon of Wethersfield or a very near relative. We also have one Tryon in England, descended from the Bulwick Tryons, indicating we share no male ancestors with that family for at least the last 25 generations, or about 750 years. Similarly, we have one descendant of the Alsatian Treon/Tryon family, with no male ancestors in common with the American or English Tryons for at least the last 25 generations. The Big Y results to date define lineages from four of William's six sons, with sub-groupings within the lineages of his sons David, Thomas, Abel, and Ziba. These new results confirm that we are all descendants of William of Wethersfield and that our paternal lineage lived in the British Isles for the last two to four thousand years, and northern Europe before that.

We encourage all males with the surname Tryon to have Y-DNA analysis and join the project. The more people who we have results for, the more useful it will be to resolve uncertainties in the pedigrees of the Tryons. The project has already helped a few members push back their record past a former "wall". Please contact Mike Tryon for more information.

Note: Privacy laws have made it more difficult to share the data. All the data is accessible through Family Tree DNA, but not in an open and easily accessible way. Most of the results are only viewable to members of the Tryon Group Project at FTDNA. Again, contact Mike Tryon if you are interested in more information. The group website is here:

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/tryon/about

and a subset of the results are here:

https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Tryon?iframe=yresults

This pdf image shows the results of the Y-37 project through Nov 2023.