Question

[phantomcycles]

As stated above in the intro, here is my question(s).....

What if someone is looking to purchase a new addition to their registered flock of sheep, but the new prospect(s) aren't documented with any registry or Open Flockbook?  Is there any way of doing research to find out what their lineage is?  If so, would it even help?  Even with oral history from the different breeders that produced that animal which gets written down and documented - would a registry or flockbook still not accept these animals anyway?  What if one parent of a prospect was registered, but the other one wasn't - but looked very pure.  Would that make the prospect non-eligible for registration?  Do they have a category for these kinds of Soays anywhere?  (Like partbred Soay 50% blood or more)?  Are there DNA records on file for Soay sheep yet?  What if the sheep breeders are deceased, or either can't remember which parents the prospects were out of.  What happens then?

Jeanine, I noticed that your ewe Domino is from a Hatch Farm "unknown parentage" wild flock.  How hard was it to get her documented?  What advice do you have to another breeder who is in a similar situation?

As you can tell, I'm quite new at this.  But maybe someone else out there has some similar questions...? 
-Shannon.

[Jeanine Rachau]

You can submit your animals stating that their ancestry is unknown to OFB.   Animals that have come from Wild Flocks will always have unknown ancestry, because you have multiple males running with the same herd.  Some Registries have limited open book, but allow progeny testing, others have closed books, and do not allow anything else in but what came from their foundation animals.   Some research may be done to track down past breeders, but it is also often just hearsay; I don't know that they are doing any DNA testing for Soay and their bloodlines.   It's really a personal choice of which way you decide to go and what your goals are.