At 10:43 AM 12/18/2005, Sharon McChrystal wrote: >Wow -- I wish this was true - wouldn't it be nice to wrap things up so easily? Olive Ruth Nabors told me a long time ago it was full of errors. I am sure of Elisha Cloud and his descendants (My grandmother Annie Irene Cloud was his granddaughter) The family story is that we were McClouds of McLeods originally from Scotland but trying to prove that is a true challenge. > >Thanks again to Tom and all the hard work he does trying to make sense of all of our data! > >Sharon McChrystal Sharon, I had long heard that the Cloud name came from McCleod (I used to attend "The Gathering of the Clans / Highland Games" every year). That is one reason I solicited the McCleod DNA Project to allow our project to use their data for comparison. I've not updated their data recently, but you can see the comparison from the Cloud DNA Project pages ... http://mykindred.com/cloud/dna/results/cloud-macleod.php I believe your branches' participants are 33774 and 41880. Without having the resolution of the 37-marker test, it will be difficult for you to hone in on any particular line, but kit 33774 is a 25-marker test. Looking at the McCleod data and kit 33774, the smallest allele count I see is nine, and that is with kit 32731 (Ken). ** please keep in mind that the counts you see on the pages I made do NOT reflect what is called genetic distance. The actual genetic distance is usually less than the difference count and often considerably less because some markers move faster than others and don't carry the "distance" weight of other markers. For example, five of those nine allele counts are from the red markers, which are given less significance and sometimes aren't counted at all. The Family Tree DNA Genetic Distance calculation shows a distance of three for your kit 33774 and kit 32731. In their FAQ, they say this about a distance of three for the 25-marker test: http://www.familytreedna.com/gdrules_25.html "Probably Not Related" "You share the same surname (or a variant) but are off by 3 'points' or 3 locations on the 25 markers tested. If enough time has passed it is possible that you and another distantly related family members' line each have had a mutation, or perhaps 2. The only way to prove that is to test additional family lines and find where the mutation took place. Expressed another way, assume your score puts you at 3 on the clock. Assume the person 3 from you is at the 9 position. Only by further testing can you find the person in between each of you...this in 'betweener' becomes essential for you to find, and in their absence the possibility of a match exists, but further evidence should be pursued." It doesn't appear to me that your line is from any of the McCleods currently listed. There is the possibility we will find the "in-betweener" that will link your line to that of William Cloud the immigrant ... or perhaps to an ancestor of his. We just need more participants in our dna project. Tom