Explore the Family Name Majors

Possible origins of the surname Majors

Your DNA provides clues about where your recent ancestors may have lived. Having many distant relatives in the same location suggests that you may all share common ancestry there. Locations with many distant relatives can also be places where people have migrated recently, such as large cities. If a large number of individuals who share your surname have distant relatives in a specific area, it could indicate a connection between your surname and that location, stemming from either recent ancestral ties or migration.

Based on 23andMe data, people with last name Majors have recent ancestry locations all within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

What Majors haplogroups can tell you

Haplogroups are genetic population groups that share a common ancestor on either your paternal or maternal line. These paternal and maternal haplogroups shed light on your genetic ancestry and help tell the story of your family.

The top paternal haplogroup of people with the surname Majors is T-L131, which is predominantly found among people with European ancestry. Haplogroup T-L131 is descended from haplogroup T-M184. Other common haplogroups include R-Z367 and E-M4254, which are predominantly found among people with European and Sub-Saharan African ancestry. Other surnames with similar common haplogroups are: Major, Wilson, Brown, Smith, Young, Miller, Hill, Roberts, Williams, Marshall.

The most common maternal haplogroups of people with Majors surname are: H1, H3, H. These most commonly trace back to individuals of European ancestry.

Your paternal lineage may be linked to Thomas Jefferson

Studies in 1998 and 2007 found that Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, belonged to haplogroup T-M70. This discovery lends support to the notion that Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings Jefferson, who also belonged to haplogroup T-M70, and who was the last son of Thomas Jefferson's slave Sally Hemings. However, it is also possible that Thomas Jefferson's brother Randolph, or one of Randolph's five sons, was the father of Eston Hemings Jefferson, because all of the Jefferson men share the same haplogroup. Though the T-M70 haplogroup is of Asian origin and is more common in Asia and East Africa than Europe, Jefferson came from an indigenous European branch of T-M70.

Your maternal lineage may be linked to Marie Antoinette

Because it is so dominant in the general European population, haplogroup H also appears quite frequently in the continent's royal houses. Marie Antoinette, an Austrian Hapsburg who married into the French royal family, inherited the haplogroup from her maternal ancestors. So did Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose recorded genealogy traces his female line to Bavaria. Scientists also discovered that famed 16th century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus traced his maternal lineages to haplogroup H.