Dear All: Katherine Borges has announced her own Scottish DNA project. That is fine with me and I wish her and Kenny the best with lots of tests. This status report is to merely advise the status of our "Scottish DNA project" and to correct some misstatements. This Scotland DNA project has always welcomed: A: anyone of Scottish descendant ( not restricted to Clans etc) Many are searching for their Clan or family connections. B: mtDNA samples. ( Charlotte has recently posted an updated database with new MtDNA results to date. C: Any Testing company results. ( Marsha converts the results to they are compatible with the Standard Results so they fit in the database. A brief outline of the Scottish DNA project ....started in March 2002 ( almost 4 years in the making) ! There are 4 components to the total Project. You can select any or all of these items as you wish. There is no requirement for example, to do the DNA testing in our project. We only provide this service as a means to be able to have potential contributors obtain the discounts that are available to all registered Surname and Geographic projects. A: The testing at Family Tree DNA. If you request the DNA kit through our project then I get access to the records. Your records are then compared to the other records and a notice of a match is sent to you automatically. You can also request to join the Scottish DNA project from another project so your records are then compared with the other test results in the Family Tree DNA database. Family Tree is now allowing people to have their results listed in several DNA projects. However, we do not automatically include any of those records in our database until the person submits them to Marsha and also gives us permission to publish them as described in item D below. B: The mailing list as administered by Lauren Boyd. You would join the mailing list in the normal way by sending an email to: SCOT-DNA-L-request@rootsweb.com <mailto:SCOT-DNA-L-request@rootsweb.com> with the one word : Subscribe in the body of the message. There is also a wealth of info available in this mailing list archives at www.rootsweb.com <http://www.rootsweb.com> C: The Web site as administered by Charlotte Braun. There are lots of records, genealogy trees, advices, and misc information. The main database is available through this web site. The web site is available by sending a email to Charlotte Broun at: cbroun@primus.com.au <mailto:cbroun@primus.com.au> or to DNACLANS@brigadoon.net D: The "database" as administered by Marsha. There are currently about 1125 results in this database. This is then posted on the private web site for everyone. We do this since it is only accessed by people that identify themselves, and not just the general public ( ala a general web site). There are privacy concerns about having your DNA available to the general public ( insurance companies etc ie non-genealogy groups that have other agendas). There have been suggestions to develop a public web site and code the responses for privacy. I have exchanged data with the Reivers project and others that have secure and private methods to either control access or code the results so it is not just in public domain. There are some very interesting results emerging from several studies underway by serious genetic scientist. These studies will be available sometime in late 2006 from recent correspondence. BTW: I posted my first "guess" at a specific Scottish highland and lowland hapotype in 2003 and it is still shown on the Database. This "guess" was based on some analysis from the early results recieved and some data that had been published by Dr Jim Wilson in his early studies ( including iceland). It will be interesting to see how well it conforms in the in depth analysis of the new results coming out next year. Best Regards John A Hansen jahansen@brigadoon.net