Joshua Lay traces his Lay lineage back to Daniel B. Lay Sr., who came to Texas from Pulaski Co KY in 1851 (see chart on the multimedia page). Unexpectedly, Joshua’s Y-chromosome profile, done at FTDNA at the 67-marker level, does not at all match any of the Lay surname group profiles. Indeed, Joshua’s Y-chromosome profile has very few matches with any surname. At the 67- and 37-marker levels the sole match, with a genetic distance of 7 at 67 markers and 4 at 37 markers, is to Mr. Dave Cook, who traces his lineage back to John Cook, born ca. 1765 and died 1831 in Hinds Co MS. At the 25-marker level, Joshua’s profile correlates with men named Wardell, Simpson, Picton, Cowell, Hocket, Baker and the aforementioned Dave Cook. All of these correlations have genetic distance of 2 and no two men have the same surname.

This result suggests that Daniel Lay was not a biological Lay. Of course, there were Cooks in Pulaski Co KY in the first half of the 17th century, so it is posslble that Daniel was a biological Cook who was orphaned and adopted and raised as a Lay. The 1820 census of Somerset, Pulaski Co KY records three Cook heads-of-household:

Jane Cook: 1 Female >45, 1 Male 16-25, 1 Male 16-18
Nearby is found the listing for Josiah Duck Sr.
Joshua Cook: 1 Male 26-44, 1 Female 26-44, 1 Male <10, 1 Female 10-15, 3 Females <10.
Richard Cook: 1 Male 26-44, 1 Female 26-44, 1 Male <10, 1 Female <10.
Nearby is found the listing of Josiah Duck (presumably Jr.)

Indeed, Francis Marion Lay was the grandson of Ann Cook, daughter of Phillip Cook and mother of Elizabeth Duck, showing a family connection between the Cook, Duck and Lay families.

However, because of the large genetic distance from the one Cook with whom Joshua matches, this is probably a rather remote possibility.