The following message from PACE-L also applies to our MASSEY DNA study.. So call Eleanor's site http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~mandaley/MasseyDNA.html> and click on form to order your DNA kit today! <grin> Regards to all, Theron ------- From: "Janders 45" To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, April 09, 2005 6:47 PM Subject: [PACE-L] Thoughts on the Pace DNA study I have only recently started following this list and I am especially interested in DNA results from descendants of the Paces who moved to Clarke Co, AL, in the first two decades of the 19th century. I am descended from one of those - William Pace, whose daughter Elizabeth married Wiley Etheridge. I hope that we can get DNA samples from several diverging lines of these Clarke Co Paces, as this well help me determine whether I am descended from Frederick Pace of Wales or not. The Pace DNA study has already yielded valuable results - we now know with a high degree of certainty that the John of Middlesex and Richard of North Carolina (Jamestown?) lines did not arise from the same immigrant to America or even from a recent common ancestor. Those who express skepticism about the validity and worth of the DNA study are exhibiting a universal human trait - the reluctance to accept without suspicion what we do not understand very well. I don't mean this as a put-down; we are all that way, just about different things sometimes. The science of molecular biology is very new and you would have to be pretty young to have studied it in school. I am a plant breeder by profession, a sort of applied geneticist who uses the sciences of genetics and statistics (and many other disciplines) to improve crop plants. This does not make me an expert in human genetics (my crop, corn, has no Y chromosome), but the basic principles of genetics apply to both corn and to humans. In my job at present, we are using tissue samples and molecular markers in the process of developing improved lines and hybrids. In the past decade, I have had to do some extensive self re-education as my graduate training was almost exclusively in classical genetics. For those who like to improve their understanding in this area, there are web-based learning resources out there. A good place to start is the Biology Hypertextbook from MIT, but a Google search will turn up many others if this one does not suit you: http://esg-www.mit.edu:8001/esgbio/701intro.html Here's another: http://www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk/notebook/courses/guide/dnast.htm> The science behind the Pace DNA study is sound. In some cases bit of art and a lot of skill is required on the part of the lab people in making the allele calls. Mistakes occur, but they are rare, and a re-sampling and/or a re-analysis can resolve those. Sorry - lecture over. I sure hope that we can turn up some more DNA samples to help us answer the Frederick Pace of Wales question.