I have started a surname project for the Woodheads and it is being done through a company called DNA Heritage.  What this means is that you can get a discount genealogy DNA test done by joining our surname project.  Since it is a section of the Y-chromosome that is tested only men can participate- but I will post results on this website about whatever discoveries we make.  I would especially like to prove or disprove that all Woodheads come from one, or a few, men that lived in the area of Woodhead, in Yorkshire England.

     What I have found out so far:

• My line of Woodheads go back to a group of people who "broke off" from another group of people about 18,000 ~ 20,000 years ago.  This distinct group lived in south-central Europe- mostly in the area of what is now the Balkans.  As the ice sheets that covered Europe in the last Ice Age retreated to the north this group followed the melting ice all the way through what is now Germany and Denmark.  They seemed to have settled in that area.  

 

• Sometime before the year 1000 A.D. some members of the group that was to take the name Woodhead joined in the popular past-time of the day- attacking England.  A company in England, Oxford Ancestors, also tested my DNA and determined that my ancestors entering England were likely Danish Vikings or Anglo-Saxon invaders.

 

• In searching the online databases of men who have had their DNA tested and have allowed the results to be made public to further anthropological and genealogical studies I have found that I am the only Woodhead listed.  Some men whose DNA markers are very similar to mine, off at only one or two places, have contacted me to see if we might be related.  Most of them trace their ancestry to Sweden.

 

• To see my DNA marker results (just a series of numbers unless you learn what they mean and how to use them) click here.....

 

• My line of Woodheads is Haplogroup I1a- which they are learning more about all the time.  Are you curious to find out about your distant ancestors?  Would you like to find out if you are related to Woodheads in the next town or the next state?  You can join our surname project and get a discount on the test- just like in CSI you just swab the cheeks and send the Q-Tip in for testing.  Click here to find out more.