"Margaret Prior Boyer" <chero@webound.com> wrote: >Curious about the DNA tests. So many 'tales' swishing around! One is that females can't have DNA tests to find ancestral lines or relatives, just don't work on females. < Y DNA tests trace the surname -- son to father to grandfather, etc. Y DNA is passed down in the male line only. Women have two X chromosomes, no Y. This test is the most helpful one for genealogical work since surnames are what we are following. If a woman wants to follow a surname, she must get a father, brother, uncle or cousin on the male line, etc. to test for her. The mtDNA test is similar in that it traces female DNA - daughter to mother to grandmother, etc. The only problem with this for genealogical purposes is that there is no surname to follow. If, however, you are interested in whether or not you and another woman who both claim to be descended on strictly female lines from the same woman, are really related, then an mtDNA test would tell you that. Louise