Susan Rosine, with FTDNA, gives this answer: "The basis for Genetic Genealogy is the fact that a man's Y-DNA has certain "markers". These markers are passed down from father to son virtually unchanged for approximately 500 GENERATIONS! What this means is, any Scarborough man who matches you, shares a common Scarborough ancestor. If a man tests who has traced his line back with documentation further back than you have, that will either give you confirmation of your own research, or will give you a direction in which to research further. We are hoping to get some men from Great Britain to participate as well."

For more information on DNA testing, please go to the Scarborough Y-DNA Project page on the FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) website at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/scarborough/ and to the Scarborough DNA Project on the Worldfamilies website at http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/s/scarborough/.

The results below are from my FTDNA test: