The Murdock (and variations) Family Tree & DNA Linkage Project invites and welcomes the participation of all individuals interested in tracing their ancestry. We are focusing, within this Project, on all of the surname spelling variations (see the table of variations, below) that have been found for members of this large and important surname group, in a wide variety of paper records created since the 14th century. We invite and encourage you to join and participate today!

With your participation we hope to make exciting discoveries and learn more about our collective surname history and origin.

Participating provides an opportunity to discover information not discernable through paper records alone, and could help with your family history research. We wish to discover which family trees are related, and, as the project progresses, the results for the various family trees will provide information about the evolution and points-of-origin of the surname in all of its variant forms.

Y DNA test results provide information about a male's ancestral male line - himself, his father, his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and so on, back through time. All males whose surname falls within our group of spelling variations are encouraged to participate. A special invitation goes out to any male who believes that there is a man in his ancestry whose surname was 'Murdock' or one of the variants, even though you have a different surname now. Females interested in this aspect of our Project will need to identify a male in their family tree, who could test along Y DNA lines.

mtDNA test results track female lines of ancestry. Males and females may participate in this aspect of our Project. A male's mtDNA test results would provide details about his mother's mtDNA, but the markers are transferred only along female lines - that is from one woman to her daughter (and son), to her granddaughter, to her great-granddaughter, and so on, through successive generations.

We encourage males interested in this project, to order at least a Y DNA 111 marker test at the outset. This level of testing offers good potential for identifying genetic relationships between two or more individuals. Initial purchase of a 'Big-Y' 700 marker test, on the other hand, offers the greatest present potential for identifying genetic relationships, and upgrades from 12, 25, 37, 67 or 111 marker tests to 'Big-Y' 700 marker tests can be purchased at additional cost. (It must be stressed here that neither the Project coordinator nor any project participants have any financial or operational interest in FamilyTreeDNA as a company - our only interest is in identifying potential genetic relationships between participants, and FamilyTreeDNA offers the best options available).

Please view the Project's background for more information about the Project.

..........Updated: 1 November 2022