Hi Brian, The genealogist, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak was one of the "pioneers" of the use of DNA for genealogy. She married a man with the same surname. She met him when she went around looking for others that had her very unusual name. A number of them took the DNA test along with her father. Her family originated in a small village in Slovakia. Four families from this small village had the name Smolenyak. She had tried linking the family with paper records. As far back as they were able to go there was no connection. Enter DNA. She started a DNA study of the whole village. They discovered that two of the families were actually going by the name Smolenyak when they were really genectically part of other families. The two remaining Smolenyak families were not related. Considering the rarity of her surname, many people would have assumed that all the families were related. Bobbi ----- Original Message ----- To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 11:56 PM Subject: Re: [HESSE] DNA Internet videos are basically useless to deaf people, at least until they begin to add captioning (or transcripts). But thanks anyway. Brian