Dead End on Huguenot Chastain Line

[jchastain]

Hi Liesa,

A word of caution—I'm not sure what you mean by discovering a Chastain link through 23andme as I've never used 23andme. Be aware that if you have a DNA match with someone named Chastain, it doesn't mean that the Chastain line is how you are related. You could be related to any number of other lines in their family tree. So just make sure you know that the Chastain line is the DNA match, otherwise you're going to be chasing your tail for who knows how long.

If you do have Chastain ancestry, I'm quite confident you're actually descended from the Pierre Chastain who came to Virginia in 1700 - http://www.pierrechastain.com/. Most Chastains are descended from this Chastain family. My Chastain line has a much smaller family tree and is unrelated to this one (Chastain meant chestnut in Old French and cropped up independently around many parts of France when surnames first arose i.e. having the same surname does not automatically mean a relationship exists).

Best of luck,
Joe

[Liesa]

Hi Joe, thank you for that info.  I am going to have to do more work on chasing my Chastain line back as I have found out that some Chastains went to Germany - there is a link somewhere of them obtaining financial help from the Swiss government.  My grandfather's family always said we were related to the Huguenots, so I think that is where the DNA link is from. Not being a German speaker and having a cousin in Germany who is not that interested in family tree matters makes it more difficult.

[jchastain]

I'm going to DM you my email. If your Chastains truly went to Germany, there's a better chance we are related. I'd like to see if we can get to the bottom of this, and I think striking up an email correspondence would be a better way of going about this.