Ardis Parshall wrote: > It has been repeatedly stated by several list participants that > commercial DNA testing has resulted in the successful resolution of > numerous genealogical puzzles. Wonderful! But how? Would you, or > any other participant, please have the kindness to pick any > successful story and describe it in a Methods-y way so that I can > understand HOW such testing can resolve a genealogical puzzle? > Please? I do not deny the possibility, but I do not understand. I > am asking for an example, and neither you nor Max nor anyone else is > offering one. > > Perhaps I can do my part in resolving the miscommunication by > illustrating what I am hoping to find. Some possibilities: Ardis, your questions arise from different premises from those used in calculating probability of relationship from DNA. It is on that basis I pointed out to you that you are constructing a Straw Man rather than responding directly to whatever claims may have been made in DNA testing. Indeed, this is a genealogical forum, and as I have already mentioned my position on the matter is that the technique can save a great deal of time and money by narrowing down the range of enquiry. If you have a difference with Max on the issue, perhaps your enquiry of him would bear more fruit were you to address his claims, by which I mean to scrutinise his wording, the questions he has posed and from what premises, and in fairness respond within the same premise. Else you will only ever be arguing across one another, never listening to what the other has actually said, or appreciating the point the other has made, or responding accordingly. Perhaps we should invite Max to restate what it is he has claimed, and go from there. Gil Gil Hardwick <gruagach@highway1.com.au>