Essential tremor (ET), the most common movement disorder in humans, appears to be inherited as an autosomal dominant trait in many families^1,2. The familial form is called familial essential tremor (FET), which seems similar to sporadic essential tremor. ET is a cause of substantial disability, particularly in the elderly¹. The prevalence of Parkinson's disease and dystonia may be increased in families with ET, but other movement disorders are seldom encountered in these families^3,4. Here we report the results of a genome-wide scan for FET genes in 16 Icelandic families with 75 affected individuals, in whom FET was apparently inherited as a dominant trait. The scan, which was performed with a 10-cM framework map, revealed one locus on chromosome 3q13 to which FET mapped with a genome-wide significance when the data were analysed either parametrically, assuming an autosomal dominant model (lod score = 3.71), or non-parametrically (NPL Z score=4.70, P<6.4×10⁻⁶