The various Bricker families in the U.S. and Canada today descend from immigrants of different faiths who arrived here from Switzerland, Germany, France, Britain, and Eastern Europe. Some of us know who those immigrants were by having either inherited or created our own family trees on paper, sometimes stretching our family origins back as far as to the 1500s. Others among us are aware of our Bricker roots only going back as far as parents or grandparents. By taking advantage of recently-affordable technology, however, together we can now help clarify our roots by having scientists read the genetic record that half of us carry within us, in our Y-chromosome DNA. Just like the Bricker last name, an exact or nearly exact copy of a man's "Y" chromosome is passed on, generation after generation from father to son. In that way, a male Bricker living today may have a "genetic signature" unchanged or very little changed from that which his direct Bricker ancestors had hundreds of years ago. And there's a very high likelihood that men who today share both the same last name and the same or similar genetic signature also share the same ancestor from some point in the past. By submitting a small sample of his Y-chromosome (no needles or blood sample necessary!) for analysis to a lab specializing in "genetic genealogy", men over 18 years old who were born with the Bricker surname can participate in this Project, to track Bricker family lines by finding out which among us share common ancestors and genealogies. While only Bricker men may directly contribute a sample of their Y-chromosome for use in this project, your help is also very much needed if you are married to such a Bricker, or have a living brother, father, son, or paternal grandfather, uncle, or male first cousin who is a Bricker by birth. Please pass on this email message to him, and encourage his participation if the Project goals interest you. In fact, you may want to forward this email to any of your Bricker relatives who you think might be interested, and encourage them to visit our webpage as well. The more that participate, more use this project will be to everyone participating! For further information on the Project, please visit the webpage at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bricker/index.htm If you are at all interested in pinning down with more certainty who your Bricker ancestors were, and even possibly extending your family line as far back as your European roots, your participation in this BRICKER Surname DNA Project can potentially help you with these goals. Sincerely, Dale Bricker Interim Project Coordinator BrickerDNA@yahoo.com