This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: BillMorrow38 Surnames: Morrow Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.morrow/2015.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hello there, "yet another Bill" Morrow, good to see you have a sense of humor. There are so many Bill Morrows, I always sign "Bill Morrow of Oklahoma" but even here in the Sooner state, there are still alot of Bill Morrows. Thanks to DNA testing, we can now find who is really kin to whom even tho we might have the same name. Incidentally, neither Amelia nor I receive any money or gifts for being Co-Administrators of the Morrow group, it's just part of our hobby of genealogy. We also try to help anybody with their lineage, freebees. I did email Group VI of our Morrow DNA project, hope some of them email you and compare family info. One of the best reasons to have your DNA tested is to find distant cousins you didn't know existed, and to really know they are your blood cousins, proven by DNA testing. Hopefully they will have found more generations back which you can use in your lineage, eg, back past your common ancestor with any donor you match. Yes, even at $135, having your DNA tested seems abit high. But think of it as an early Christmas present to yourself. Plus your branch of Morrows would benefit since you would represent them. A couple of hundred years from now, descendants of your line will be glad you were tested. Getting tested gives you abit of immortality since test results (called your Haplotype) last forever. Your DNA sample will be examined in the lab, I mentioned it's a cheek sample, you brush inside your cheek like brushing your teeth. You place your DNA samples in two vials furnished in the DNA kit mailed to your address. Instructions are included. You mail the kit back to FamilytreeDNA and tests take about 6 weeks. The lab experts find certain markers (dealing with inheritance) and under the microscope, they count the number of DNA repeats at each marker tested. As I mentioned, 25 markers will prove kinship but only if you match at least 23 of the 25 markers with no more than 2 numbers different f! rom another Morrow donor. The DNA repeats at a given marker are called allele. My allele count ran from a low of 8 to a high of 30. So that's alot of numbers to compare. And there's one test available for 67 markers. The more markers tested, the more the test results are defined. But again, 25 markers does the job of proving who's kin to whom. Hope I didn't get too technical on explaining DNA testing. It's a great help to genealogists to have proof positive evidence of kinship. This type testing is not like police DNA tests, or health tests. It is limited to only the DNA of the Y chromosome carried by males which is passed from father to son(s) virtually unchanged over the eons. So your yDNA is very much the same as your ancient Morrow ancestors who lived thousands of years ago. Certain mutations do occur to people's DNA. (Here I go again, getting technical). Mutation is defined as a change in the number of DNA repeats at a given marker. Mutations are caused by (1) Time (2) Radiation occuring naturally on Earth (3) The environment (4) certain serious sicknesses. Hey, I'm going to close before I put everyone asleep. If you would like to know more about DNA, please email me. Bill of Oklahoma 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.