Jodie Lampert, a PhD student from the University of Leicester, is undertaking an exciting study in the Bodmin area.

In a previous genetic study, it was found that Cornwall ‘showed a distinct difference in genomes’ compared to other regions, thought to have occurred due to the natural frontiers of Bodmin Moor and the River Tamar.

These natural barriers have meant settlement patterns around the moor have not changed in a millennium, leading to an interesting genetic lineage.

Ms Lampert (pictured) would like to study the ‘Y-chromosome ancestries of the men of Bodmin Moor, and how they compare in relation to a sample of general Cornish men as well as a general Devon sample.’

Compiling a list of Cornish surnames that have been around since the 1600s, Ms Lampert said: “In September, I will be coming to the area to recruit male volunteers with these surnames whose grandparents were born in any of the Bodmin Moor parishes or within a small radius of the area. I will be looking to get saliva samples from one male per surname.”

After taking the saliva samples, she plans on combining genetics and history by tracing the volunteers’ family histories and their Y-chromosome lineages.

She hopes the study will allow better comprehension of how Bodmin Moor affected the population demographic and Y-chromosome types between men living in the surrounding area and other surrounding regions.

For more information, contact Ms Lampert via her webpage www2.le.ac.uk/departments/genetics/people/jobling/bodmin-moor-project