The DNA test is a simple cheek swab that brushes the inside cheek of the mouth. The DNA collected from this swab is analyzed and the numbers obtained from this analysis are called the "markers". These DNA "markers" are passed down along the Y chromosome. All women carry an XX chromosome, all men carry an XY chromosome. The Y chromosome can only be passed down by the father to his son, not to his daughter. Women do not carry the Y chromosome and so cannot be tested for it. A man can only pass the Y chromosome down to his son. The son then passes this Y chromosome down to his son. This DNA continues to be passed to successive generations of sons who carry the same surname as their father. Since most surnames come from our fathers, then a male with the same surname is carrying the Y-DNA associated with that particular surname. Surnames came into use in order to differentiate people with the same given name. These surnames usually related to a particular person by identifying John the bricklayer (John Mason) as someone different that John the blacksmith (John Smith) and also different than John who lived by the river crossing (John Ford) or the John who was the son of John (John Johnson). John Mason would pass his Y-DNA to his sons (who are also surnamed Mason) and now, with our advanced technologies, we can look at that unchanged (with sometimes a few mutations) Y-DNA and see that he was not related to John Smith, John Ford and John Johnson, nor any of them to each other. We can also tell that John Johnson from Bristol, England is not the same as the John Johnson from Wales or the Jon Jonsson from Denmark. Women can get their brothers or fathers or male uncles or cousins (with the same surname) to test their Y-DNA for that particular surname. If you know there was a case of adoption or a male carrying the surname of his mother in your Johnson line, then you cannot test the DNA for the Johnson markers. They must be tested under the surname of their biological father. Lynda SoRelle Message: 1 Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 09:10:58 -0500 From: "Carolyn Sue Howard" <CarolynSHoward@comcast.net> Subject: Re: [JOHNSON] DNA--Question To: <johnson@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <000b01c80c10$8c468120$f47e2218@yourxhtr8hvc4p> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Okay, you'll have to find a male cousin from your mother's Johnson family, who actually carries the name, Johnson. That's the way I understand it. I wish somebody on the list would either confirm what I'm saying is true or correct me. In my particular case, I have one brother left who could do the testing for the name, Johnson (my maiden name was Johnson, of course), but I haven't been able to convince him to do it yet. He thinks it's going to be way too expensive and he doesn't understand how it could help me in my genealogy research. He does have a son who could also do the testing, in the event that he decides definitely not to do it.