| I. This is an International Project which welcomes Cloud families from all parts of the world. |
| II. This is primarily a surname Project whose purpose is to aid in finding the paternal lineages of the Cloud family. |
| III. Only men can participate in the surname portion of the Project. |
| IV. Anyone, man or woman, can join the Project using any type of DNA, but only men who are direct male descendants of a CLOUD ancestor can join the surname portion of the Project. |
a. The Project Administrator will attempt to help people who have done mtDNA or autosomal testing, but these tests require the participant do their own analyses. |
b. Autosomal results are difficult for a non family member to analyze because they include matches to all the participant's cousins, from all their ancestral lines, including matches unrelated to other CLOUD lines and therefore difficult for the Project administrator to interpret. |
| V. The surname portion of the Project can only include males who believe they are the direct male descendant of a Cloud family line. This is because women don't have a Y chromosome which is required for this part of the Project. |
a. It is not necessary to prove this lineage (that's the purpose of the Project). |
b. It is not necessary to have the CLOUD surname (but the participant must be, or believe themselves to be, a direct descendant of that surname through the paternal line). |
c. The paternal lineage to the male CLOUD ancestor must be unbroken -- i.e. there cannot be a woman in that line (as she does not possess a Y chromosome). |
d. Women do not possess a Y chromosome and, therefore, cannot participate in the Y-DNA (surname) portion of the Project. This is due to the nature of the DNA and not because they are not wanted in the Project. |
e. It is the selective nature of the Y-chromosome (i.e. males only) that makes it useful in genealogy research. mtDNA is also selective in that it is only transmitted to children by their mother, making it ideal for tracing the maternal lineage, but its very slow mutation rate makes it less useful than Y DNA for genealogy research. |
f. Please see the Project FAQ and Help and visit the Family Tree DNA FAQ pages to better understand how DNA is used to assist in genealogy research and what each type is best suited to serve. |
| IV. Membership in the Cloud Family Association is not required to participate in the Project. |
| V. The participant must submit a pedigree of his or her lineage to the Project Administrator. |
a. Proofs, if available, should be submitted with the pedigree. |
b. Please indicate questionable generations. |
| VI. The participant, or a representative, must submit his DNA sample to Family Tree DNA using the name of the Cloud Project (click on the "Registration" link). |
| VI. If the test is performed with a company other than Family Tree DNA, the participant must submit his DNA results to the Project Administrator. |
