The Project officially started March 1, 2006. As of May 19, 2018 we have over 100 members who have received or purchased test kits. New results add a member of the Irish-Palatinate Smeltzer line into the project and a two addition tests have identified new I1c connections related to Adam Schmeltzer b. 1755. We have also added a match to the Valentin 1705 line.

Thanks to all of you who have been willing to serve as the "early adopters" for this project. The entire Smelser/Smeltzer clan will benefit. And, for those of you reviewing this website I encourage you to help bring someone from your family line into the project. The entire family will benefit from their participation. We will be conducting a third snail mail and email campaign during the winter of 2008-2009 to help bring an additional 10 plus participants into the project. Our 2007-2008 efforts resulted in about 6 new participants.

As to project administration, I continue to learn. I've joined a couple of the DNA genealogy forums, have recently uploaded my Y-DNA information to the new DNAancestry files started by Ancestry.com and have been eagerly reading all of the material I can get my hands on regarding this new genealogical tool.

For those of you wishing to see how the results of the testing on FTDNA can be displayed go to the following link. It does an excellent job of illustrating the similarities and differences between geographically distinct lines and it provides links to many other interesting and useful bits of information regarding Genetic Genealogy. If you are looking for more details on how this DNA world is working take the time to check out Charles Kerchner’s website.

http://www.kerchner.com/