At long last, the results from the upgrade on my Luark cousin’s Y-DNA test to 37 markers came back yesterday. There are six matches. Three of them are with people with the last name of Ruark, with two of them being two step matches, and the other being a three step match. One of the remaining matches is a two step match with someone with the last name of Roark. The last two are a three step match with someone with the last name of Shenton and a four step match with someone with the last name of Thomas.
Of the three Ruark matches, only one has a family tree posted. The earliest ancestor is Timothy Ruark. His birthdate is unknown and he is listed as dying before 27 Sep 1813 in Pulaski County, Kentucky.
Using this information to check my autosomal test matches, I see that I have two matches that both trace back to a Stancil B. Rheuark (1804 – 1892). His father, is recorded as either M. or Nicholas Ruark, born in Brunswick County, North Carolina.
I’m especially curious to learn the known lineage of the Shenton match, as they are as close of a match as the Ruark matches are. In regards to DNA projects which contain the Ruark surname, I came across https://my.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?group=LowerDelmarva which looks to have three Ruark members listed in the results page, and https://my.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?group=Hoopers-Island which mentions an interesting tradition about an early Ruark settler marrying an Indian woman.
This will be very interesting to work on. Just as with the Wright DNA test, these results seem to call into question what some other researchers have posted. This time, it’s about the Lewark/Luark family not being related to the Ruark family. DNA seems to clearly show that at least one Lewark/Luark family is related to at least one of the Ruark families, as well as Roark possibly being a related family.
Adventures In Genealogy Research: No Stone Unturned/The Wright Stuff 