Dolores, Richard may have already answered your question but since I am not sure I will answer your question. You wrote: Am I correct in assuming that female members of the Chase clan cannot have a definitive DNA reading? Dolores Chase Jarden Dolores, there are several tests. Our Chase group was interested in determining if there was any relationship between Aquila, Thomas, and William Chase. These three Chase men were the earliest Chase families to come to America. The DNA results of the Aquila descendants differ from the results of the William descendants. This shows that there is no common ancestor between the two. As far as Thomas and Aquila, while there is probably a relationship between the two, we have not had a Thomas descendant with proven research to take the test. We were also interested in securing additional proof of our ancestors. The Y chromosome test results will show if you have a common ancestor with any of the other test takers. We are lucky that we have descendants of both Aquila and William with proven research. Don't forget, Y chromosome passes from father to son--not to the daughter. So for this reason only, this test is not for females. There is another test, the mtDNA test which the females can take but because females normally take the surname of their husband the results are hard to read. The mtDNA passes from the mother to both her son and daughter but only the female passes it to her off-springs. Your mother, your maternal grandmother, her mother, etc. would all have the same mtDNA. To be honest with you, I don't know what I am looking at when I look at the results. An interesting book about mtDNA is "Seven Daughters of Eve" where the author lays out a premise that all people descend from these seven women. This type of DNA was used in identifying the family of the Russian Monarchy who were murdered and found many years later. I believe it was Prince Philip of England who furnished matching mtDNA to help I.D. the bodies. The Prince descended through the same maternal line as the deceased. I hope this helps. Charlie Scott