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Welcome to the web-site of the Clan Irwin Surname DNA Study.  This Study was launched in 2005, with the assistance of Kent Irvin, and its website was re-vamped in 2011 with the assistance of Rick Byers. 


This Study and its website are fully independent from the Clan Irwin Association, although the Study continues its support of the Association and to recognise that the interests and memberships of the Study and of the Association have considerable overlap.

  

This is Update No.25 of our Study:

  • We now have over 475 participants with STR test results, of whom 37 have BigY test results and over 70 have L555 Pack Test results. 

  • We have now identified over 40 genetic families (branches of the surname) which are unrelated to one another during the surname era but whose members use the Irwin surname or variant spellings thereof.

  • Our largest genetic family, the Border Irwins, has over 300 participants, of whom 50% can now be included in the L555 haplotree.

  • The other 50% of our Border Irwins who are not yet on this haplotree are recommended to consider taking the $119 L555 SNP Pack test.

  • Our Study remains amongst the leaders in the rapidly evolving field of Surname DNA projects, particularly in its ability to connect the human haplotree to conventional pedigrees. 

I can now confirm that our Study complies fully with my understanding of the requirements of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and of FTDNA.  Changes now implemented give members more control over how the Study handles their personal data (see "Privacy Statement" and "Managing your FTDNA Account"), albeit that the choices now offered by FTDNA and replicated in this Study have added complexity and caused a significant increase in my workload.  But our Study is now more transparent and robust, and I am pleased to be able to confirm that the goals of our Study remain unchanged and that our main Results table remains to be accessible on this website to both Study members and the general public, a feature that continues to attract new members to our Study.


I can also advise that our Study has not lost any members due to GDPR, and although I have had to remove the results of a few individuals (all either adoptees or non-Irwins) who had already left the Study for other reasons, these losses have been numerically offset by new members, so our Study has continued its growth.


I am grateful to those members who have responded to my requests to update features of their FTDNA Accounts by ticking "Opt in to Sharing" and granting co-ordinators "Advanced" or "Limited" access.  For the few who have not yet opted in to sharing I have had to expunge their results from our main Results table as reproduced on this website, but I will be happy to restore these details if and when they ask me to do so.


I have also been able to restore the relevant Family Finder results to our main results table, and I hope soon to find time to work through the more subtle implications of the hg38 BigY results.   


                            James M Irvine,  Surrey, UK;

 Study Administrator, 5 Nov. 2018;

jamesmirvine@hotmail.co.uk;

Kit no. 29479;  ISOGG Member.