As far as I understand DNA testing of any type confirms that a DNA strand(s) in two samples are identical and therefore come from the same source and the number of generations back can be calculated. As DNA does not carry names the only way to verify the result is a paper trail as was required confirm the identity of Richard III and the Romanovs. I guess it would be theoretically possible to create a DNA based ancestry by matching at each generation but this but this would need a database of almost the entire population. Current genealogical DNA databases are tiny compared to the amount of paper based records. There are other problems. In 1600 the population was around 4 million, it is currently around 55 million. In between there have been roughly 16 generation giving around 65,000 direct ancestors alive in 1600. The chances of common ancestry in the 17th century is extremely high and back to 1066 almost a certainty. The one thing DNA will show up is "strays", from illicit relationships through to today's surrogacy etc. and genetic engineering. A few years ago I had a low cost DNA test to identify regional origin. The results basically gave an area where I would be most likely to find a person with a similar strand of DNA. I was looking to confirm a family story that my great-grandfather came from Austria around 1875. Austria at that time covered most of central Europe. Poland and the Czech republic did appear in the list but at the top was Northern Ireland. This was odd as I have not come across any direct ancestors from Ireland. The mystery was solved when I looked at the next few places in the list, all Scandinavian. A quick word with the lab and all was revealed. I have a fair proportion of Scottish and North-Eastern ancestors all of whom would have picked up Viking DNA, the same Vikings who invaded Ireland. The odd thing is that we have red hair in the family, but the only grandparent with red hair was pure Devon. The working assumption is that the came from the Normans (Norsemen) and is a "stray". I am still working on that. Cheers Paul -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of blackmore terry via Sent: 10 June 2016 22:58 To: devon Subject: [DEV] DNA testing One thing I've noticed with regard to DNA testing, while it does prove that there is a link between two people with known DNA, there is one flaw. Unless we dig up all known named graves in say Devon and take DNA samples we are unlikely to ever know exactly who in ancient Devon we could actually be descended from. DNA will show exactly where the generations join, but not who they were. To me there is only one possible way of knowing our ancestory is down the female line. Only one person can be the mother of a child, but any male can be the father. This still depends on if the information we have is of the correct mother. Unless we invent time travel, sorting out our family pedigrees will always be one of a lot of guess work. ------------------------------------------ The DEVON-L mailing list is co-sponsored by GENUKI/Devon http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/ and the Devon FHS (http://www.devonfhs.org.uk/ ) List archive for Devon can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=devon ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message