In a message dated 5/27/2005 6:54:56 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: As to Webb lines dying out, that doesn't have to happen. Betty, I was speaking of the Y-DNA dying out, not the name. As a woman whose father decided to name me Anne Webb Nelson to keep my mother's father's line alive another generation, and a woman who retained my maiden name when I married, I am another living example of what you describe. However, the WEBB DNA died on my twig in 1957 when my beloved DeeDee did. Women do not carry Y-DNA (or we'd be men!). But you do point up a situation we need to watch for. There are records of WEBB being taken on (or given up) as a surname in the situations you describe for your Riddells. WEBBs in the DNA Project should keep a close eye on their matches and if the names known to be involved in these kinds of transactions show up, it could be a clue to their geographic origins. Among the names I have seen in UK documents as "Webb alias ____" or "____ alias Webb" are: Richmond (probably the most famous case) Evered/Everet/Averett/etc (probably the second most famous) Nicholls Kelleway/Calloway/etc and others I can't recall off the top of my head I have dealt with this in a past issue of the WEBB Surname DNA Newsletter, but it's worth repeating. Anne