Thank you Jim--your reply was about what I expected after looking into this about 6 yrs ago---but I had heard some advances were in the works so I really appreciate your update and the hopes that someday we might have a chance. I have names for her parents and will have to get to the area to do some research for siblings though she died in 1895 at 103 yrs so I am not sure how much I will be able to find on her family/brothers, if there are any of them.    She has been an enigma to me but sounds like a pretty interesting lady and I look forward to finding out more about her. I am lucky enough to have a couple of photos of her--but now the real work begins!   Barb   In a message dated Tues, 17 Nov 2009 17:19:16 -0800 (PST), Barb Stevens  <genealogybarb@snet.net> writes: >> Any suggestions  and updates on DNA going thru the female line are appreciated  Hello Barb and everybody else! It's pretty much a  hopeless cause to try researching your Brown ancestry via DNA, since that  ancestry came down to you via one or more females. Stated another way, it's just an unfortunate fact of biological science  that we can't yet use your brothers' DNA or your own DNA to trace back to your Brown ancestors, because the Y-chromosome DNA we use in the Brown project -- and  in all other surname tracing projects -- is handed down only in an unbroken  male-to-male line. On the other hand the situation may be  "hopeless" only for the time being, since there's a very new testing method on  the horizon, one that sometimes may be able to detect a relationship involving a  mix of male and female ancestors. These tests may be described  as "genome-wide SNP sampling." They have been sold most  recently by the "23andMe" company and by the just-bankrupt "DeCodeMe"  company, but I'll bet competing companies will eventually offer  them also. We don't yet employ this kind of testing as part of  the Brown DNA Study, although we may do so within a few years. The reasons we  don't use these tests are several: 1. They are still  very expensive -- at least three or four times the cost of the tests we now  use for tracing the Brown surname. 2. They seldom can  detect relationships over a span that goes back more than six or  seven generations. And even then, the chances of finding matches are very  much "hit and miss."  (For example, I have a small match on my 23andMe  test with a known sixth cousin. But I don't match her uncle, who shares exactly  the same Brown ancestry!) 3. Even if you should buy one  of these tests now, the database of other test participants is still so small  that you'd be unlikely to "pick up" a genealogically useful  relationship. 4. The genealogical applications of these tests are still very  much in an "experimental" phase.  But I do anticipate that  the underlying science and technology will generate changes over the long  run that will be very favorable for genealogy. So maybe we'll eventually be able  to use DNA for tracing your Browns, say within four or five years. Keep your  fingers crossed! Finally, if you want to read more about the current thinking on these tests (and about the associated controversies, which are numerous), you may browse the  archives of the Genealogy-DNA mailing list: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/DNA/GENEALOGY-DNA.html Hope  this helps. And I'm always glad to discuss further. Best  regards, Jim Brown (James Armistead Brown, Jr.) Volunteer Project  Administrator Brown/Browne/Braun DNA Study DNAforBrowns@aol.com  http://brownsociety.org/browndna/dna-brown.htm