Welcome to the Radcliffe Surname Project! If your last name is Radcliffe—or a variation such as Ratcliff, Ratcliffe, Radcliff, Ratliff, Ratliffe, or Radley—you’re in the right place. The project was established to trace the Radcliffe male line—not for patriarchal reasons, but because both surnames and male Y-DNA are passed from father to son. We recognize that no system is perfect and that the project includes a wide range of variations. Variations in spelling are expected. We also welcome members who have inherited the Radcliffe surname without a biological connection, as well as those who are biologically related but have a different surname. These situations, known as Non-Paternal Events (NPEs), occur when the presumed father is not the biological father or vice versa. The first step to knowing more about your heritage is to build a fact-based family tree by gathering records such as birth, marriage, death, military, census, and immigration documents. While these paper records are valuable, research can stall when documents are missing or unclear. To overcome this, combining traditional ancestry with Y-DNA testing can help verify the accuracy of your paternal line and support existing research. Y-DNA results can enable you to connect with others sharing your surname, which may reveal new, previously unknown male relatives and fill in gaps in your family tree. In this way, Y-DNA testing for biological males helps confirm paper records, identify new relatives, and strengthen your family history. A well-documented tree provides a strong foundation for using Y-DNA to expand and confirm your research. Autosomal DNA analysis such as the Family Finder test concerns the 22 chromosome pairs one inherits from both one’s father and mother (approx 50% from each). Along a paternal line this halves each generation i.e. one inherits approx 25% from one’s grandfather. Thus, whilst such analysis is useful for finding matches and building up a tree, it has practical limitations, and matches become more difficult to find, and are unlikely at more than, say, 5 generations back. This is the reason why Y-DNA testing becomes very useful for building families prior to 1800 and better record keeping, as it is inherited largely unchanged by male descendants. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis helps individuals to trace their maternal lineage. Mitochondria are found in all cells for energy production and are inherited unchanged by males and females only from their mothers, as they come from the egg cell. Matches can help expand and verify your family tree, connect you with relatives along strictly maternal lines, jumping a surname with each generation, but the data does not relate directly to the Radcliffe male line and thus this project. Participation in this project is open to anyone worldwide with Radcliffe ancestry. Since the study is set up to follow the male family line, the DNA sample must come from a male with a direct male Radcliffe descent. Only males have a Y chromosome, which is passed almost unchanged from father to son and cannot be inherited by or from females. Therefore, women interested in tracing their Radcliffe ancestry need a male relative—such as a father, brother, uncle, or male cousin from the direct Radcliffe line—to provide a DNA sample. Women can serve as kit managers for their male relatives’ DNA if they choose. If cost is a concern, start with the Y-37 test and consider upgrading later once you understand how your DNA relates to the Radcliffe families. This test analyzes 37 hereditary markers and compares the results with those of others in the database. In general, the more markers two people share, the more recently they share a common paternal ancestor. The Y-37 test is a great starting point for finding familial matches to grow a family tree, although some of these matches may be distantly related. The Big Y-700 test analyzes all markers on the male Y chromosome and identifies specific variants called SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms), which less comprehensive tests do not cover. By comparing these SNPs with those of other male Radcliffe members, you can determine whether you share the same paternal haplogroup—a group with a common male ancestor—or belong to a different lineage. This test will most accurately expand the Radcliffe Y-DNA tree by providing new, crucial information that is currently missing from the data. It can deepen our understanding of our family’s lineage, and your results may uncover details about the Radcliffe family that we were previously unaware of. By comparing our findings with those of other Big Y-700 members, we can gain deeper insights into our family history.