Background

Liddesdale DNA/mtDNA Study: Our worldwide aim is to collect Y-DNA results from males with surnames believed to be Liddesdale-derived and also to support a mtDNA study for related females. This Study is administered by Team Liddell et al and is specific only to Team members and the general public who reside outside the USA. Our intent is to trace specific family lines and provide genealogically-valuable insight into kinships both within related lines and across our nearly 80 similar surnames apparently derived from the ancient Scotland border region Liddesdale. Males with surnames from our cluster or similar and females can participate outside the USA starting with the 12-marker Y-DNA and basic mtDNA tests, or with the 37-marker and mtDNAPlus. The 25-marker Y-DNA test and the female equivalent mtDNA test is not accepted into either Study administered by the Team. Questions? Contact: James Wallace Liddell at teamliddell@yahoo.com The Team has no dues or assessments, does not copyright its materials and offers nothing for sale. It and its members do not receive any type of benefits, financial or otherwise, from this Study. The only difference between the Team Liddell et al DNA/mtDNA Study and the Liddesdale one discussed here are the types of tests that are available for purchase in each. This Study, the Liddesdale one, emphasizes the lowest-cost tests available for both genders from FamilyTreeDNA and is available only to non-USA residents, whereas the Team Study emphasizes only the top-level ones. The top-level FTDNA tests are available in the Liddesdale Study as a voluntary option at the election of the non-USA test participants. All other features and services remain the same in each Study. The Liddesdale Study is a result of the Team's realizing after seven months of effort that non-USA retirees frequently balk at the higher-cost top level tests offered by FamilyTreeDNA and, thus, decided to answer this sometime financial need by allow non-USA resident to begin with the lower-cost tests and then, if they wish, to advanace to the top-level tests while remaining in the Liddesdale Study. These basic tests are still very useful to the participant and the Team, for they identify the ultimate ethnic group and geographic origin (sometimes as early as during the last Major Ice Age some 10,000 years ago), a solid indication if two or more family lines are related, and can assist in filling gaps in documentation for family genealogists of two different lines interested in each other's data. They cannot, however, identify the era in which a most recent common ancestor lived--which is one of the major purposes for the higher-cost tests. As assured in the Team Liddell et al Study to all test participants, their privacy and security are absolutely guaranteed in all regards at all times. See the Team Liddell et al site listed under that name elsewhere at this FamilyTreeDNA website for additional formation. (This Study also supports the Leyton Surname Cluster during its formulative stages.)