Dear Jim and Cousins, If people want answers to specific questions like am I the descendent of George Washington (bad choice for an example since he was the father of the country, not of any children,) then yes, I suppose so, to your question of exhuming our ancients. Because those DNA answers otherwise will not be there. But suppose you don't know much about your ancestry, you've always heard your principal ancestors were Swedish, but you'd like to know more, then you can find answers because known markers are present for Swedes, Russians, Hungarians, etc. Don't be outraged because people are willing to dig up ancestors. They routinely have done it to Native Americans for years and hung them up on shelves at the Smithsonian! Or lesser honored repositories called your local museums. Daniel Boone was dug up from where he died in Missouri and returned to Kentucky, and relatives of Merriwether Lewis want to dig him up to find out whether he actually killed himself or whether he was done in by others. The whole idea of DNA rests with what you want to find, and whether the simple comparisons among living relatives provide that. The problem I find is that people are given to believe that they will be able to tell what lineage they belong to from these kinds of tests which are being promoted, and they will still not know the answer to that. No, Jim, I can't imagine someone would want the ancient ancestors dug up for DNA purposes. You can see how dense I am. I hadn't thought of such a thing. Only that people were getting ripped off in the present tests. I know our Anniversary celebrator Dick Matteson had the testing and thought it was terrific, but he wasn't looking for specific lineage information. I'm not sure he's back from his anniversary party yet. Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn Love, your cousin, Carolyn