Dear Ann, I will give my opinion about the answers to your questions in the order you gave them in your message below. 1. Yes, provided that you were able to get enough members in the project. Endogamy complicates any serious autosomal DNA project. 2. This would depend on how many descendents of the original group of immigrants you are able to have tested. The more people in the project, the more work it would be. 3. I think that anyone with at least some background in autosomal DNA could start and manage a project of this nature. However, you will need to be very careful how you analyze the data. I have some suggestions for you if you are going to undertake a project of this nature: 1. Make sure you get both complete pedigree charts and the raw data files for each of your project participants. 2. Encourage the participants to have at least one child or parent test as well so that the data can be phased. If possible, get data from two-parent/one child trios. This will allow for the most accurate phasing. 3. Create a genealogy database that will readily allow you to see all of the known shared ancestors for any one person in your project. Programs such as Legacy can do this fairly well. You might want to add all of the pedigree charts to Wikitree, which will also allow you to see the known shared ancestors for any one person in your project. The advantage of doing this in Wikitree is that other genealogy researchers will benefit from any work you do in this area. 4. Carefully map the chromosomes of all your project participants. Sincerely, Tim Janzen -----Original Message----- From: autosomal-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:autosomal-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of AGilchrest@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2013 9:45 AM To: autosomal-dna@rootsweb.com Subject: [AUTOSOMAL-DNA] Autosomal Geographic project I would like some information about starting a project based on a location. In 1738, 1739, & 1740 three ship loads of passengers came from Scotland to New York. About 20 years later they were awarded a patent in Argyle New York. There were many marriages between the families and cousins marrying cousins. My thought is to start an Argyle Patent project. Would a project help with the endogamy issue with these lines? How much work is involved in starting and running a project of this nature? How much knowledge do I need to have to start a project? Thank you Ann Gilchrest