Several people have asked how the surname project will help them with their genealogy. In the Hope Surname Project, we have a number of members have matched closely enough to be grouped. Interaction among these individuals has determined that one who had believed he was descended from a specific Hope family found that he was not - but he found that he matched with another member who had traced their joint ancestry back to Ireland. In other cases, interaction among matching individuals has helped push earliest known ancestors back several generations.  Perhaps equally importantly, many of our participants have learned that they are NOT of some lineages, enabling them to ignore research on these, irrelevant, lines.