In a message dated 6/27/2003 4:59:11 PM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Its been explained to me here at least 3 times, but I still can't see why "my blood' ain't good enough. <vbg> Sorry, just thickheaded - now that would be coming from my German mother. Winn: I noticed your comment in your last message. I presume you were talking about why you can't participate in the DNA project. It's not that your "blood' ain't good enough". It's because you are a female. When your father and mother had kids - each child received an equal number of chromosomes from your mother and father. It's kind of a random mix so each child may have different features from the mother and others from the father. One pair of chromosomes is different. The sex chromosomes. Females have XX, males have XY. Like the other chromosomes the child will get half a pair from each parent. The mother can offer one of her X's. The father offers either the X or the Y. If an X comes from the father then the child has XX which would make it a female. If the Y comes from the father the child is male - XY. It is this Y chromosome, that only males have, that is being tested. The Y chromosome is passed down from father to son, generation after generation, virtually unchanged. That is why we use it. Your son would have his father's Y chromosome - which would not represent the Davenport line. If you had brothers, or Davenport uncles or their sons - that would work. Or you could go up a generation and follow down a male line. There is a test for females - mtDNA. The mtDNA is passed from mother to her children. The male will have it but cannot pass it onto his children. This is not used as much because it is much harder to tract the female side of the family due to name changes, etc... Bill Davenport [email protected] Davenport Surname DNA Project Administrator