A number of companies have been reporting of traces of Lower Mediterranean DNA in their ethnicity calls for the native Irish population and individuals descended from this population. This project seeks to allow people of Irish origin who find such trace Lower Mediterranean DNA or who share segments with others where these segments are determined to be of North African/Middle Eastern origin, to collaborate in the study of this DNA and the interface with history and academic studies of ancient DNA towards a more detailed understanding of the origins of the Irish. For selected kits that have not yet tested to Big Y, there may be funding available to upgrade. Names of particular interest for the current study; Kerwin and Keeran. Just set your sharing preference to "Advanced" so upgrade can be paid via the Admins account. One focus of this project will be on autosomal segments in FamilyFinder kits, as it is small autosomal segments that are being found with this trace ethnicity call. Another will be on the investigation of the relationship between historic Gaelic Clans and branches, as recorded in the old Irish genealogies. An initial study is being conducted on the Milesian families of Ossory and the Carroll/FitzPatrick relationship. In order to conduct this study, data must be collected. People with pre-Norman Irish surnames may possibly have North African/Middle Eastern DNA. As an example, trace amounts of DNA from the South and East Mediterranean are identified in 23andMe autosomal results. Such specific areas are Arabian Peninsula, Coptic Egyptian, The Levant, Caucasian and Mesopotamian. Some samples are included in the "Activity Feed" section of this project (20 Feb 2022). Identifying the relevant segments of the autosomal data already collected is to be the next phase. It is very likely that mixtures of Irish with other Mediterranean peoples can show North African/Middle Eastern DNA, due to, say, the presence of the aforementioned DNA in e.g. the Italian population. This is not the focus of the project as the North African/Middle Eastern DNA should be embedded within otherwise Irish DNA. Facebook group associated with the project: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1491962264306483