Goals

The Marchant/Merchant Y-DNA surname group’s primary purpose is to promote the use of Y-DNA and deep clade testing as an integral part of modern genealogy research. Combining paper research with these tests should reveal new familial links or help breakdown walls where genealogists have yet to find documentation with other traditional means.

Objectives

1. Join-  Increase the number of project members in the Y-DNA database.  This can happen by encouraging male Marchant researchers to participate by taking new tests, by encouraging others that have taken Y-DNA test with other companies to transfer their results to Family Tree DNA, or by encouraging strong matches with your Y-DNA test that have different surnames to join our project (members are not limited to one group by FTDNA).

2. Communicate-  Project members should share traditional research information in their Family Tree DNA profile by including a basic GEDCOM file, and also keep current contact information to help researchers that may want to discuss match results with them.  Additionally, members should contribute to the Patriarch’s Page (see links in Background). For help, please contact your group administrator.

3. Learn-  Members should work toward gaining greater knowledge of DNA testing and the meaning of results.  FTDNA has excellent resources available via the Resources tab after you log into your account.  Also, there are free webinars and webinar recordings available from the following webpage:  https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/ftdna/webinars/

4. Adequate Y-DNA Testing-  For genealogical purposes, most researchers currently suggest testing a minimum  of 37 markers on the Y-DNA test.  If you have tested fewer, remember upgrades can be ordered without taking new samples in most cases if you started with Family Tree DNA.  More markers may be dictated by factors such as the number of markers tested within your lineage.

5. Deep Ancestry Testing-  Deep clade testing is encouraged for each lineage.  This type of test will help discover differences in prehistoric migratory routes of project lineages. Current choices for this include the Big Y test, and the Geno 2.0 test which is organized by National Geographic with tests conducted by Family Tree DNA and results transferable to your profile.

6. Financial-  Encourage contributions to our General Fund which will be used to order new tests or upgrade old results for the benefit of the project.  Members may recommend possible usage of any available funds with an email to your group administrator.  The recommendation should describe how fund usage will contribute to the goal of the group. Currently, no funds are available.