From: "Amanda Kerby" <[email protected]> > Hi and thanks everyone for input on this thread. > I´ve had a good look at three sites tonight; FTDNA, Oxford > University (because I read abt it ages ago in a magazine then read > the seven sisters of eve book!) and another local NZ one. > > There seem to be quite a few offering Y DNA testing and Mt testing, > but at a higher cost! What I really want is to find the maternal > line before my paternal great grandfather! I have joined a forum > and will ask the question once they´ve accepted my registration. > I have always meant to do one for my Dad for his birthday and even > if it doesn´t turn up much useful data genealogically , it might > be fun to see what it does does up! Curiousity caught the cat. And > of course any results are only as useful as the size of the sample > used to compare them to, ie the bigger the database, the better. > Don´t even mention quality control issues, whether a lab produces > low human error rates in carrying out the analysis and writing up > results for you. A few little slips and you could end up related to > Bigfoot or yeti (as I see Oxford Uni are hoping to test)! I was > interested to read about the surprise non matches between two > supposed family members and the reasons they might not match, and > the subsequent obvious problems it can cause! Do we need to bring > the milkman into this!> Re the Seven Sisters of Eve, I am afraid I take with a rather large pinch of salt anything by Prof Sykes. When I worked in newspapers, before I retired, he was widely known as a "Rentaquote" merchant, i.e. if you wanted a quote about something to do with DNA and ancestry he would say whatever you wanted. I recall also that he first achieved fame (or should that be notoriety?) when he claimed that everyone called SYKES must be related to one another. Sykes is an extremely common surname in the West Riding of Yorkshire, especially around Huddersfield, and it transpired that the number of people he had tested was only 64. And you wonder why I am sceptical about DNA testing? I am sure it has advanced beyond those days but I still remain unconvinced and prefer to rely on the tried and tested methods of old-fashioned research and documentation, even though those admittedly sometimes don't tell the whole truth. -- Roy Stockdill Genealogical researcher, writer & lecturer Famous family trees blog: http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/tag/roy-stockdill/ "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE