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Thanks Annie;

 I did a raw DNA through My Heritage and downloaded that to FTDNA. I appreciate that Ancestry doesn't allow this. The idea of the Y-DNA is that this tracks the Y chromosome through the male line only so that one can track their family name back as far as possible. I and a second cousin have been working with a Don Maxwell from the USA who runs the Maxwell Project at FTDNA tracking the Maxwell families. We started off doing a 37 marker test which showed that we are pretty unique to Maxwell's as far as our DNA group is concerned, hence my renewed interest in the MacKison connection. My cousin is now doing the Big Y which will have 700 markers. We can then see what common markers we have to other Maxwell's around the world if any.

Hi Jim;

Yes I am. My father George was Jame's and Ruth's first cousin. I also lived in Lake Tekapo for 40 years, shifted out 4 years ago. James and Ruth put together, with your help, a Maxwell/Valentine family tree for a reunion we had in 1988. The Mackison name was always a puzzle so last year I decided to do a DNA test through MyHeritage. It didn't turn up much new stuff on the Maxwell side but I found more cousins on my mothers side. It was then suggested that I did Y-DNA test through FTDNA and the Maxwell Project managed by a Don Maxwell in the USA. A John Maxwell, (Jame's nephew) also did one. the only strong match we both found was a Kenneth Maxwell in the USA showing his oldest relative to be a John Maxwell 1790-1846 which is close to our Maxwells but not exactly. Maybe another MacKison connection if we have the same Y-DNA grouping. He had his DNA done in 2016 and has had no matches until we came along hence my desire to find more out about the MacKison connection. We did the y37 test, then John Maxwell expanded that to the Y111 test and nothing more was showing so Don is getting him to do the BIG Y700 test hoping some answers may pop up. So in a nut shell, that is where I am at, trying to carry on with the work you were involved in 30 odd years ago. If you wish do you want to private message me with your email address and we can then carry on this discussion by email but with the objective of keeping this group informed as I dare say there will be renewed interest out there. By the way there is even questions around the Parkhead name. Jame's property in Lake Tekapo was also named Parkhead along with the farm in Wanganui. I also visited Parkhead in Scotland in 2008 but didn't go in.