I concur with the general premise, except that I've found it helpful to test each of my siblings (one at 23andme and one at Ancestry) to collaborate with my own test results at FamilyTree DNA and match to others within the data pools. Some folks don't know to upload to www.Gedmatch.com so they aren't yet available there to match to. Also, recombinant DNA is random, thus each sibling matches differently to different distant relations so there is value in testing them. Each cousin I add, matches to different relatives so my approach has been: 1. Test my parents (do Y-DNA on father) [I actually did mt-DNA on both parents but it hasn't been helpful] 2. Test myself 3. Test my parents living siblings (test Y-DNA on maternal uncle) 4. Test my parents first or second cousins (Use Y-DNA on some difficult maternal lines of mine that they have Y-DNA for) 5. Test my parents uncles, including their Y-DNA as surrogates for deceased grandparents 6. Continue to expand as time and money allows. 7. Share fun stories and the enthusiasm may spread Help as many contacts as possible with their questions and then they will be more interested in collaboration. Encourage EVERYONE to upload to www.Gedmatch.com as that is the greatest common denominator for comparing matches amongst the three primary testing companies. [FamilyTree DNA, 23andme, Ancestry] Denise in Oregon -----Original Message----- > I'm thinking I need to go back a generation or 2 & find some more distant cousins to test?