As of May 2009, we have not identified William Strother's ancestors either through DNA testing or document research; however, we have made progress. We tested eighteen Strother men from Great Britain and four other countries but did not find a match to William. We also searched records in England that have recently become available but to no avail. Then in 2008, we tested four men in Great Britain with the surname Struthers and found that all four had a close DNA match with William. This seemed to indicate that the original surname of William Strother, or his ancestors, was actually Struthers.
We then searched records in Great Britain to develop the lineage of each of the four Struthers tested. We were assisted in this by Peter Wotherspoon, a genealogist in Scotland, who had been of great assistance in our search of documentation of Strothers in Northumberland. Peter prepared a report on the results of his search for documentation on the lineages of the four Struthers tested. A copy of this report can be found in the menu item EAC Reports.
The research that we and Peter Wotherspoon did indicates that the Struthers families come from the county of Lanark, Scotland, which is south of Glasgow. As William Strother, the immigrant, appeared in America as early as the mid-1600s, we needed to search 17th century records. Unfortunately, official records in Scotland are scarce for the 17th century so we were unable to trace the Struthers lineage as far back as necessary to find where William's surname was changed. We are now searching for other sources.
The Committee has also set up a Strother Surname Project on the Internet through which any male Strother descendant can have his DNA (Y-chromosome) tested at a discount. The results of the testing will be available to the Committee for comparison with that of William.
