Participation is open to any male with surname BELL. Females may participate in our studies by using a living, male, close relative (with the BELL surname) as surrogate for the testing. Females may also participate in a mtDNA test. A "brick wall" is what genealogists call reaching a dead end in their family research, where all attempts to find an ancestor failed. Read Craig's story. The Bell DNA Project uses haplotypes to assist our participants with family validation, and reconstruction. The DNA sample collection is done painlessly, by swabbing the inside of the cheeks of your mouth, in the privacy of your own home. Kits and instructions are furnished to each participant for that purpose. To assist with our analysis, you must complete a list of your known ancestry (to the best of your ability), and submit it to our webmaster. If you have no knowledge of your ancestry, it does not exclude you from testing to possibly learn your ancestry. The BELL lineage rightfully claims a clan name in Scotland. There were over 174 patriots with the Bell surname in the Revolutionary War. There were over 16,000 Bells in the 1870 Federal Census. NABELICH is the publication of Clan BELL International, which contains pedigrees and articles on BELL, BEALL, BEALE, etc. They also have many books available for purchase. The editor is Ray W. Bell / 1 Charleston Ave., Unit 15 / Londonderry, NH / 03053. If you are interested in helping with the administration of this project, please contact Craig Nelson. |
| Welcome |
We are a DNA Surname Project, interested in advancing Bell family research through Y-DNA testing. We are also entirely non-profit, and operate the project as volunteers. Genealogy can be a very frustrating, challenging and time consuming endeavor. Traditional investigative methods do not always find that elusive ancestor. People have traditionally used oral history and documentation as a means of identifying family members and their ancestors. Researchers have primarily used documents to track generations of families by establishing pedigrees and lines of descent. Where such documents were lost in fire, floods, wars and other disasters, there was little hope for establishing a pedigree. The surname itself can assist in tracing descent from one generation to another. As early as 2850 BC, the Chinese found the use of surnames was practical to identify families and to prevent the intermarriage of close relatives. Genealogists have examined other surnames spelled much like their own or that sounded the same in efforts to find ancestors. Names were frequently misspelled because individuals could not read or write, and clerks spelled the surnames and gave the families names as they saw them. Ancestors decided to add letters like a, s, l and e to their names; others simply dropped letters out of their family names; while still others took completely new names when they migrated. There have been questions about parallel lines of descent, with same or similar surnames, which could not be connected to a common ancestor. Other questions concern the earliest origin of the BELL surname in Scotland. There were always questions regarding skin, hair color and other physical characteristics and people recognized there must be something in their families that passed these similarities or differences down through successive generations. Today, there is a new investigative tool called genetic genealogy. DNA testing on the Y-chromosome reveals a set of markers known as a haplotype. This science enables connecting individuals to their paternal ancestry. Mitochondrial DNA has also become a useful way of tracing maternal relatives. It was successfully used in identifying the skeletal remains of the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. It was also used in the case of Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. |