This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: ksaxe Surnames: McConnell Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.mcconnell/2468.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I have also asked older relatives to take DNA tests. One was younger than your aunt, but another is many years older. I've never met this older cousin, and I expressed some concern to his daughter about his experience with the sampling process at his advanced age. She told me that he didn't mind it all and sent me a picture of the two of them dancing earlier this year. If I make it to his age and have the coordination to easily hold my mouth open for processes like DNA sampling and having my teeth cleaned at the dentist, I will count myself lucky and wonder how much of my longevity comes from my McConnell DNA. Since I have heard that mitochondrial DNA is not very useful for "recent" genealogy, I haven't yet used mitochondrial DNA for my own research, but I expect that I will someday. I hope that in the meantime scientists will discover more variations in mitochondrial DNA which genealogists can look for and compare to get more detailed information on their recent ancestry. Even if they don't find very many of these sorts of variations, I would find it interesting to learn about my mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. The mitochondrial DNA matches that you have at this time may be quite distantly related to you or simply may not have enough information about their families to know from your messages that you are closely related. If you have a common haplotype (set of test results), they may be overwhelmed by messages and this would contribute to the lack of response. If your list of matches is shorter, you may actually have a better chance of receiving responses. Like I said earlier, I am not an expert on DNA, especially mitochondrial DNA, but I would recommend that you try all of the following approaches: 1) Keep looking for new matches on your FTDNA match page. DNA testing is still very new, and it's probable that as more people test, somebody more closely related to you and your aunt than anybody tested thus far will be tested. 2) Try looking for matches using the Sorenson mitochondrial DNA database. This large database doesn't provide contact information, but once you find matching results, you can check the accompanying pedigree files for clues and look for the more promising matches on other databases like FTDNA's mitosearch. Mitosearch is comparable to Y-Search, allowing people with mt DNA test results from different companies to connect. You can also look for families in the Sorenson database on Rootsweb, Genforum, etc. 3) mt-Search can also be used to find other matches who aren't in the Sorenson database. 4) Joining geographical projects like the Scottish Clans, Scotland, Nordic and Celtic DNA, and British Isles 1 projects at FTDNA and comparable projects at Relative Genetics might help you to identify additional matches and would put you in touch with project administrators with experience in the use of mitochondrial DNA test results. 5) You may want to make some posts on genealogy boards and lists for Glasgow and surrounding areas about your aunt's participation in mt DNA testing and your interest in finding matches among others who trace their mitochondrial DNA to the region. These matches would be much more likely to be close relatives than most of your other matches. 6) Contact FTDNA about this problem. I recently had some similar concerns about lack of response by Clan Donalds with surname variants other than McConnell to messages from closely matching McConnells. It took an e-mail and a phone call, but they actually made changes to their website to alert people to the fact that surname variant matches should be treated like those with identical surnames, and this, along with posts to the McDonald and MacDonald boards, seemed to alleviate the problem within the Clan Donald DNA project. It is possible that FTDNA may be able to help those with mitochondrial DNA test results in a similar way. Jean, it must be very frustrating to receive NO responses at all from your aunt's matches. If you have questions or continue to experience a low response rate, please feel free to e-mail me and I will be happy to look at the situation more closely and see if I can help. Kirsten Mitosearch: http://www.mitosearch.org/ Sorenson database mitochondrial DNA search page: http://www.smgf.org/mtdna/search.jspx Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.