The MyBRAZELL Y-DNA Project is part of a larger study, the BRASWELL Y-DNA Project, which is hosted by Family Tree DNA and, as of July 2017, counts 323 participants.
The BRASWELL project covers all the surname variants that are of interest to me, including BRAZELL, BRAZIL, BRASELL, and BRAZIEL.
As the project prospers and grows, I hope it will expand to include other BRAZELL lines and help answer questions that I have been pursuing through more traditional paper-based research. For instance, whether the BRAZELLs of Buckinghamshire and the BRAZILs of Oxfordshire in England, close neighbours over centuries, share the same origin; or whether the same lines are related in any way to other BRAZELL lines in the British Isles, such as those in Wales, Norfolk, North-East England, and Ireland.
If you are a BRAZELL, BRAZIL or BRASELL (or any other variant spelling) and your paternal (i.e. father’s father’s . . .) line comes from the British Isles, I would be delighted if you would join me on this exciting journey to discover the roots of our surname and agree to participate in the BRAZELL/BRASWELL Y-DNA project.
If you would like to join or need more information before you can decide, just drop me a line using the contact page and I’ll be in touch.
The test results for Y-DNA provide you with your major population group, called haplogroup by the scientists. The haplogroup represents the distant origin of your direct male line. These haplogroups formed over thousands of years, as the world was populated. (See Wikipedia for more about haplogroups.)
Currently, only one other member of the BRASWELL Y-DNA project has the same Y-DNA Haplogroup as me – J2. Most other members of the group fall under the R1b1a sub-category, but there are others with similar surnames to ours in the quite different I1, I2, and Q1 Y-Haplogroups. (See Eupedia for more on Haplogroup J2.)
I’m hoping to find other J2 members among our surname group as I succeed in recruiting participants who are known relatives (such as third or fourth cousins) in England and further afield in countries where descendants from my line of BRAZELLs, from Buckinghamshire, England, are known to live today, such as the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
Thank you for your consideration.