My branch of Kingstons settled in Co Cork, Ireland, in the early 1600s. They came from England, possibly from Somerset, when they were granted land in Ireland during the Munster or Cromwellian plantations. DNA analysis has recently enabled me to link to another branch of the Kingston family. I had my Y chromosome analysed last year (which required me to send a painless cheek swab to a company which specialises in DNA analysis for genetic genealogy). In the last few weeks the results became available for a member of a Kingston family from a different area of Co Cork. We are an exact match, even though paper records have been unable to prove any link between our families in the last 200 years. Therefore this link could not have been made without DNA testing. I think this form of testing offers huge potential in advancing our knowledge of our Kingston ancestors. The Kingston surname DNA project has been set up to record and analyse Kingston DNA results, and also provides advice to people who are interested in being tested. The Y chromosome is passed from father to son only (females do not have a Y chromosome) so only testing of males with the Kingston surname will provide relevant information. www.familytreedna.com/public/Kingston is the website of the project. A second website connected with the project contains much of the same information but also hosts pedigrees of various Kingston families, some for which DNA testing has already been performed and some for which a suitable family member (ie a male Kingston) still needs to be found. This is still a small but growing project. The pedigrees can be found in the patriarch section of www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/k/kingston/