I am glad that you raised the issue of security. First of all, you have every opportunity to remain anonymous from all but me, the coordinator. I am a homemaker, mother of 9 children whose hobby is genealogy. My reason for undertaking this study is that I have already worked with two other family surname projects: Bricker and Cullison, who have found that DNA solved mysteries in family history which for those of us interested in history was very satisfying. I am sure you can do enough searching with the web to determine that what I am writing about myself is true. If you wish to have your DNA processed anonymously, I would purchase the kit myself from FamilyTreeDNA and have it addressed to myself. I would then mail it to you. You would return it to me and I would send it in the mail to familyTreeDNA. Their lab is the University of Arizona under the direction of Dr. Michael Hammer, a world renowned geneticist. The kits are coded by number, and only I would have reference to the number. FamilyTreeDNA, because of its excellent scientific credentials, is the lab and company handling the National Geographic Genome Project - they have a very interesting web site where you can read lots of information about genealogical DNA. JUNK DNA is what is used for Y DNA projects. It does not involve blood, but rather the swab of one's inner cheeks. Junk DNA, since it consists of only a few skin cells, cannot be used for cloning or for medicl purposes ,which is why scientists call it JUNK DNA. If medical insurance wants to learn something about you for their own purposes, they could easily do that through your regular medical checkups, where blood is taken and put in test tubes labelled with your name. As for whether or not our ancestors were noble, middle class or poor - I am sure we all have ancestors from all three groups. But my training is as a historian, and when I find a good research tool that answers historical questions- I am all for using it .Thanks for asking questions which I am sure many people have, and I would be glad to answer more. Sincerely, Mary Jo