I've posted this to another of my forums and got a lot of positive feedback. Some of you may be interested as well. ABC Here's a basic primer for everyone on DNA testing: Every cell in your body has DNA. It is a blueprint of sorts which tells the body how much of a certain protein to make in your body, or for example, what your hair or eye color will be. Think of DNA as an alphabet, but one in which there are only 4 letters: A, C, T, G. These letters or "bases" as they are called, occur in largestringsofwordslikeasentencewithnospacesorpunctuationmarks. If you look at the sentence above, even though all the words are joined together, you can hopefully still make out the words. In DNA, these 'words' would be called genes and genes are the basic building blocks of who you are. Large strings of DNA (hundred or billion bases long) wrap tightly upon itself to form chromosomes, of which there are 46 in humans. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosome We all have the same 4 bases (ACTG). In fact, over 99% of our DNA is nearly identical. It is those few differences in the order they occur which makes us unique. For example, Sally and Mike have similar DNA sequences but differ at three positions in their DNA sequence, while Mike and Joe have the same sequence: Sally ACTGGAGGACAG Mike ACGTCAGGACAG Joe ACGTCAGGACAG Looking at the sequences, Mike and Joe are more closely related than either are to Sally. As I've said, every cell in your body has DNA. In fact, most cells have 2 copies of DNA. One is from your father and one from your mother. This is what they call "genomic or nuclear DNA". There is another type of DNA called "mitochondrial DNA". The mitochondria is a small structure found in your cells which is involved in metabolism and provide energy for your cells. This type of DNA you inherit only from your mother. By targeting different type of genes (and either nuclear or mitochondrial DNA), DNA analysis can be used to do all sorts of wonderful things... from identifying your mother's ancestry (different ethnic groups tend to have slightly different mitochondrial DNA) right down to paternity analysis (which we've all seen on TV). Because you receive half your DNA from your father, half of your nuclear DNA will be a match to your biological father and the other half, your mother. The way the tests work is that your sample is compared against a database of known samples (for example, known Irish vs. Scottish, vs. French vs. African or known CHIASSON vs MACISAAC, etc.) to predict your most likely affliation. Some of the test kits call for a mouth swab because the skin cells on the inside of your mouth tend to slough off easily and give good DNA samples. Well that should be enough to digest for the moment. Hope it helps! Regards... ABC