This Claypoole Surname Y-DNA Project was started to: 1. Help members of Claypoole/Claypool/Claypole families work together to find and confirm their (shared) heritage. 2. Identify how the participant's families are connected, both genetically and through paper trails. 3. Identify and confirm genetic lineages of ancestral families. 4. Ultimately, catalog pedigrees and genetic connections of all of the known project families, but subject to ensuring personal confidentiality and individual privacy for participants and their families. As a result, the Y-DNA results will not be linked to any participant by name but to their 'Patriarch': that is their earliest confirmed Claypoole/Claypool/Claypole named male ancestor.