d Team Liddell et al    c

“No Longer Separated by Oceans and Centuries”

(The surnames of interest to Team Liddell et al include: Laydel, Laydell, Leddel, Leddell, Leddle, Ledel, Ledwll, Leedahl, Leddel, Leddell, Leidel, Leidl, Leidle, Leydel, Lidaill, Lidall, Lidale, Lidall, Liddaile, Liddaill, Liddal, Liddale, Liddell, Liddel, Liddele, Lidden, Lidderdale, Liddesdale, Liddiard, Liddil, Liddle, Liddll, Liddle, Liddil, Liddol, Lide, Lideall, Lidele, Lidel, Lidell, Liden, Lidiard, Lidie, Lidle, Liedel, Liedle, Lindel, Lindell, Loydall, Loydell, Luddall, Luddell, Luddil, Lydal, Lydall, Lyddal, Lyddale, Lyddall, Lyddel, Lyddell, Lyddie, Lydel, Lydell, Lydle, Lytasl, Lytell, Lytle, Lyttle, Riddell, Riddle, Riedel, Riedl. Team Liddell et al is additionally interested in a few possible connections in the Liddesdale region between the Team's surname cluster and a few of the Little variants possibly also originating there.)

All of the surnames conjected by Team Liddell et al as possibly being related (notice, please, our carefully guarded word usage here) have been taken from church and/or public records in the areas of interest to us—and always in lists which include very close variants such as Liddell, Liddle and Lidell and the like. These areas are northern England, and southern and central Scotland from the 1400s through the 1700s with a concentration on the 1500s.

That last point is critical to understanding what the Team is trying to accomplish through its Y-DNA/mtDNA study which was launched worldwide on October 15, 2004.

  This is not to say that the more distant surnames could not haven arisen independently elsewhere in the British Isles. We mean here only that each surname we think is in our surname cluster appears at least once in records both close to our own closest ones—both physically in a record which is also in the geographical areas of interest to the Team.

  One line of Liddells in the United States, for example, has documented knowledge of both early and current Liddells in deep southern England and even in Wales who, today, cannot trace themselves back into Scotland, or be traced back by the records into Scotland by others--but the chances of this particular surname independently arising elsewhere in the Isles is very slender, and can be viewed as practically non-existent.

  This is very much why Team Liddell et al has adopted the Y-DNA/mtDNA study to resolve the matter of our origins and to reunite our families of the Scottish Diaspora, for anyone who delves into the records in the geographical areas of interest to the Team quickly discovers that the records become fragmented in the 1600s because of 300 years and more of war, rebellion, feuds and the ordinary loss of documents in places once illuminated by candles and fireplaces.

--And as for genealogically linkable records in Scotland prior to the 1600s? The simple truth is that, except for a very few sparsely surviving documents, they don’t exist today and rarely ever existed in the first place.

Then, too, there also is the basic fact that most Scots did not have surnames prior to the 1500s. Unless you were in the nobility or royalty or perhaps in the church or at a university, or otherwise won a fame of some sort, the vast majority of Scots were simply known as John of Glasgow or John, son of John or John, the Cooper, or Mary of Barlow or Anne from Fife.

  In very truth, our Y-DNA/mtDNA study is the ONLY way we will be able to get past conjecture and the prattling of self-proclaimed experts and also a too-heavy reliance on shattered and originally and measurably inaccurate public/church records in obscure places.

  For all these reasons—and more--we invite visitor and Team member alike to consider joining our Y-DNA and mtDNA test(s) thru our study.

Team Liddell et al—which now has the emphasis on the el al because of its rapid growth among the other variant surnames in the Liddesdale-derived surname cluster—recently ran a surname survey which shows clearly that the Liddells constitute approximately 40 percent to 50 percent of the individuals included in what we call the cluster. The survey clearly shows that the Liddells have the necessary numbers to run and administer a Study, which we are now engaged in—and, because of this, they have a responsibility to assist the other variant surname families because they are drastically fewer in number.

Thus, Team Liddell et al is very confident that most of the other surnames we are interested in cannot muster enough numbers to warrant a study simply because they don’t have enough potential participants to have adequately broad test-result comparisons. For example, the Lide surname board at Rootsweb, has had two postings in three years, and the Lidell board only some 20 or so participants, whereas the Liddell board has close to 400.

The only other surname known to Team Liddell et al which has enough participants at that site to even begin to consider their own study are the Liddles, and they already are well represented in the ranks of Team Liddell et al.

But the Team is not trying to do "empire-building" here. It is ready to fully support all variant surnames of interest if they want to spin-off from the Team’s study and will assist them in every way possible to get their own studies started if their results are in no way akin to our own and they get enough numbers to justify the spin-off.

  Thus, those with the less-frequently encountered variant surnames gain the benefit of the Team’s group rates, its extreme emphasis on security and privacy rights and its prior experience—as well as being able to compare DNA/mtDNA results to the Team’s central database, and to any other test-results some small group with one particular surname might bring into the study.

The Team will assist any possible-related surname group to piggy-back on its study, to test for indications either yea or nay—and then be assisted to spin-off their own study (or leave it within the Team’s overall study as desired, should there not be enough numbers to warrant a stand-along study). Team Liddell et al has only one individual who, alone, is keeps the books and knows exactly which kit number belongs to which individual and what the surname interest is for that individual.

  Please understand that there is a HUGE amount of detail work involved in getting a study up and running and Team Liddell et al was built over 14 months solely to be able to handle the details. At the core of the Team, there are some eight actively-involved Team members who have turned out to have exactly the talents the Team needed to get the study off the ground. These include genealogists, webmasters who can build websites and then administer them, Group Yahoo gurus, journalists, historians, mass-record compiling grunts and even math experts and Excel specialists—and the list of specialists is continuing to grow.

It is literally true, that an individual cannot do a study alone and get the job done right and quickly, and get the full range of results desired—no matter what some people may tell you. Please believe us in this!

  Team Liddell et al has this talent already at work, the various models constructed and tested and in operation and the methodology well in hand. It is yours simply for the asking. 

(The use of TeamLiddell as the principal identifier in this group's name is not at all intended as a slight to the other variants in the Team's surname cluster. We simply started out in early 2004 as Team Liddell after some 14 months without any type of formal identity and with no foreknowledge whatsoever that in just a few months we would grow so rapidly and expand our interests and activities to the point that an "et al" became necessary in our name. TeamLiddell in our email addresses is used today simply to save keystrokes and to continue the various Web listings and contacts we established early.

            And we assure you that the Team is completely open to name-change suggestions.)

(Edited by Jack Dalton Wardlaw, Editor-Team Liddell et al, Oct 2004)

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