Thanks to Barry for the explanation I just wish my brain was wired differently to be able to do all that myself but I'll just have to be guided by others. My Y-DNA indicates that I, Dean & the US Steere's share a close paternal ancestor of John Steere c1634, suspected of being connected to the Ockley Steere's. Most of the early 16th Century Surrey baptisms are Dorking or Ockley though I haven't a list of early baptisms from Sussex but expect Horsham and surrounding area has many too, and Petworth is not that far away. Another close match on my Y-DNA is David Clark, (Genetic Distance of 5 at 111 markers) he told me: "We communicated when I was matched to you at Y-67 with a GD =1 but we decided we were not related. I now see that you upgraded to Y-111 and we have GD=5. Also, your terminal SNP is now R1b-Z2103 which was my old terminal SNP before I did Big-Y when it was on sale. My terminal SNP is now R-BY3719 (also known as R-PF331 or FGC35088) which is a rare subclade of R1b-Z2103. I also ran the TIP calculator and noted that there is a 96% probability that we share a common paternal ancestor 12 generations (300-384 years) ago and 99.5% at 16 generations (400-512 years) ago. The generation period used in the calculations is 25 to 32 years. All my male ancestors were Carters until Henry Thomas Carter assumed the alias Harry Clark in the 1880s. Most of the Carters appear to be Sawyers who lived in the area of Cranley, Ewhurst and Ockley in Surrey. There are so many Carters living in that area, it has become very difficult to follow a paper further back than John Carter born Ewhurst circa 1760." In this case perhaps a Steere father who didn't marry the mother, or a Steer(e) widow whose young child took on his stepfather's surname. When looking for Steer(e) in Surrey it is easy to dismiss those in Sussex but if you look on the map they are all close together. I am treating the surname as a mini one-name study and taking a proven family from numerous censuses back in time. While it creates numerous orphan trees it does serve as a process of elimination when you get to a list of those born with the same forename around the same time. If I had the ability and time I would put the trees online. So far I've been working on Surrey & West Kent, then I'll have a go at those in North Sussex, as Peter rightly says there are links but whether we will be able to find documentary proof is another thing. Stephen Steere Orpington, Kent.