I've been watching the work going on in genetic testing for a while. In April of 2000, I made some usenet posts looking for folks that share my last name that would like to share DNA testing results when those tests become available. Things have changed quite a bit recently. These tests are now available from a variety of sources-and there are some well-developed,private projects tracing other last names including:

Mumma

Duerinck

The surname Burns presents an interesting chanllenge. The word "burn" is Gaelic for stream or creek-so the Burns's were the folks that lived down by by the creek. There are two distinct Scottish families that use the last name Burns: One in Cumberland(a border region) that was organized as a clan in its own right and the other in Argylle Scotland, that is associated with the Campbell Clan. What adds to the confusion is that there is also an Irish family that spells the name slightly differently. (Some of this history is available via Infokey. There are also some other variations: including Burnett, Burness.

Some major immediate goals I propose here:

Developing the capability to differentiate between the major branches of the Burns family

Developing capability so that Burns's can compare their DNA to major samples of ancient DNA (i.e. the Cheddar Man etc.).

Developing capability so that "lost Burns's" --those that might have other last names by reason their ancestors were adopted or were the offspring of cuckoldry or a single mother can become capable of identifying their burns heritage without supporting documentation(I think this will emerge as families conducting surname projects start to cooperate).

Setting in motion a discussion/polling mechanism so that we can tell how people that share the Burns Y-chromosome feel about major issues that relate specifically to our shared heritage(i.e. should we be developing a Burns family specific medicaldatabase that is controlled by people that share this heritage?)

I'm intend to sent my tests to results Oxford Ancestors as soon as possible. There are less expensive labs out there. I'm inclined to start here because Bryan Sykes has played a rather heroic role in pioneering this technology. I also suspect that we are more likely to get capability to compare our DNA samples with ancient DNA sources in Britain than from other labs. I intend to get both the Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial test results-and I encourage other folks to do the same.

I will exchang results-or set up a mechanism for sharing results-with anyone with the last name Burns or something similar that wants to exchange results and family history.

Now, I will go with the flow if there is a consensus that we should use a different lab. Folks that get involved in this early on, need to be prepared to submit another set of tests.

I've set up a mailing list so that the folks interested in this project can communicate with each other. The first thing to do here is to join the Burns Surname mailing list.

I'm especially interested in hearing how folks may be interested in supporting the project and what the goals they would like to see for the project. I expect that we'll have some folks who are willing to share test results but can't afford to pay for their own tests. Things will happen a lot faster here if I'm not the only one providing resources.

I'm not a professional biologist, but I worked briefly as a technician in a microbial genetics research lab when I was in college. (I may try to press one of my relatives who is a professional biologist into helping with advice for this project). I also have substantial computer experience and have done a couple of small biometric projects.

Randall Burns

2000-12-18