The autosomal dominant macular dystrophies are a confusing group of poorly understood diseases. Linkage studies will greatly aid our classification of these disorders and hopefully provide insight into central retinal function and dysfunction such as occurs in age-related macular degeneration. North Carolina macular dystrophy is one such disease that has been amenable to linkage analysis because of the large pedigree size. Seventy-six polymorphic markers have been tested for linkage and exclusion data are presented.