I am William E Goff, FTDNA (B2394), ancestry.com (9goff32424).
I believe everyone in this group is "brick walled" in their tree's in the mid to late 1700's. I would like to post some information that is relevant to everyone in this group.
I have taken every dna test at FTDNA and ancestry and have managed to get my brother (488478) tested. He and I are off by 1(DYS437) at 111 Y tested.
Due to our genetic Y markers, everyone in the "1745 Goff" group belong to the "Irish Continental/Irish Type 4" Y dna group.
https://sites.google.com/site/irishtype4/irish-type-4-sub-cladeThis is not a surname group. It is a larger group with similar Y dna markers.
These are all the people that you connect too at the 12Y, 25Y,37Y and the 67Y test level.
To get past all these distant people, I took the" Big Y" test. I believe I am the only person in our group to take this test.
ytree.net/DisplayTree.php?blockID=15
If you go to this site you will see that my tested haplogroup is "Z18128". It will also show where my/our haplogroup differs from many of the other surnames that show up as "connections" in Y dna tests.
There are only 2 other surname in this "Z18128" group and they are Fitzpatrick and O'Shea. I had my brother tested for the Z18128 haplogroup. He was "presumed" R-M269 and he tested positive for Z18128. I believe that everyone in the "1745 Goff" group would test positive for Z18128.
If we could get everyone in the "1745 Goff" group to upgrade to a 111 Y marker test we would be much closer to finding out how our tree's connect.
My reason for getting into dna testing was to get past a "brick wall". I am only interested in finding out how and when my Goff line entered the USA. I firmly believe that my line is the same as all the Goff's in the "1745 Goff' group.
When I first started with dna I connected with a George Goff at 12Y. He had died with no tree on record. I now have over 300 connections at 12Y. If you expect results you have to test. If you pass away without testing you will only make the wall higher.
For the record. I am old and I live on a very "modest" income. I hope someone finds a box of lost Goff family records and enlightens me. There is a better chance of answers coming through dna.
1745 Goff's have no real connection with people in the "Four Brothers Of Western Virginia"book.
Regards