I am new to this forum - I am from New Zealand. My domicile is irrelevant to my request but I am travelling to the UK in February and will be in Northumberland (Ashington, Woodhorn) in late February for research.
I am the administrator for the Riddell/Riddle Surname Project for a DNA firm titled Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). I have some 150 members from all over the globe and they have been working for months to raise the funds for me to offer free Y-DNA tests to Riddell/Riddle men who possess a pedigree back to around 1800.
Currently those members hail from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, North America, Scotland and England. But because I know that not all the RIDDELL (or Riddle or Ridley) families are represented in the project, I am pushing to recruit more members.
If you live in the UK and can provide me with a pedigree back to around 1800 (or earlier), you automatically will qualify if your surname is a derivation of Riddell or Riddle or Ridley or Ridel etc.
If this is you or if you (on this forum) know someone who might be interested, please contact me. The test consists of a cheek scraping - no blood - no hassle - no cost. In return you will have full participation in all the results of the project plus access to learning or advice or genealogy via me as the administrator.
I shall also be in Edinburgh and Melrose and will be issuing the same invitation. (It will be a race to see whether the funds are extinguished by the English or the Scots) :-)
Kind regards
Gail Riddell