Watching the Trees Grow

by Phillip G. Goff, GGFA Director of Genetic Genealogy A Chinese proverb says that “People from the past plant the tree, so we could hide in its shade.” Trees require nutrients from the soil, rain from the sky and light from the sun in order to grow. In the same […]

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The Gift of DNA

by Phillip G. Goff, GGFA DNA Project Manager DNA carries the history of our ancestors dating back hundreds of years for autosomal DNA and thousands of years for YDNA and mtDNA. Owners of such DNA samples, however, pass away typically in less than a hundred years’ time. More often than […]

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Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?

by Phillip G. Goff, GGFA DNA Project Manager In the days before YDNA was available to sort out the various Gough/Goff families, well-meaning family historians made leaps of faith in family tree connections. Where there was a brick wall, the isolated family was then attached to another Goff/Gough family that […]

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Four Goff Brothers Meet Stephen Gough

Phillip G. Goff, GGFA DNA Project Manager [Reprinted from the Winter 2007 issue of Goffs/Goughs: Their Ancestors and Descendants] In the Spring 2006 issue of the Goffs/Goughs Their Ancestors & Descendants newsletter (Vol. XXV, No. 2), I discussed the background and methodology of the Goff/Gough Surname DNA Study (the “Study”). […]

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