Gary Merrylees of Torbay, New Zealand, Bill Merrilees of Edinburgh, Scotland and Mike Mirrilees of Wheaton, Illinois, USA learned of the affordable use of DNA tests that might answer the question as to whether all of our surname are one family. They and several other skilled genealogists have exhausted the physical records and linked many of the various Merrilees Family Trees together. They started with 33 different lines and saw 14 of them intersect with marriage, birth, and christening records. The remaining 19 trees are being tested through DNA science to learn more about who we are. The idea of this project started in 2002.