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MacDougall

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About us

Only men have a Y chromosome (it carries the male sex gene), so only men can test it. Women can test mitochondrial DNA and autosomes, but such tests are generally not helpful to surname projects.

Male MacDougalls and those having alternate spellings, such as McDougal, McDougald,  McDougle, and etc. are invited to test. Although test results are publicly displayed, your identity is revealed only to project members. As you will see, however, one's test results can match with numerous men. Indeed, if literally everyone tested their Y chromosome, each would have hundreds, perhaps thousands of matches. Although families can have unique markers, that variation is very small. The Y chromosome just isn't that unique from one man to another.

Displaying your name or contact information can be a major privacy concern, but Y-DNA markers say nothing about you as an individual. Still, the more markers you order, the better the chances that you will find meaningful matches. Twelve-marker tests can yield matches to men of dozens of surnames. A 37-marker test is a good start and goes a long way toward finding men who are of your "clan," even if having a common ancestor that lived three, four, or more hundreds of years ago.

The MacDougall DNA Project is an independent study and is not affiliated with any organization.