Thanks Judie - I should have added that most of us are more interested in knowing to whom our family can be traced about 6-10 generations back from us - before that it can get murky. Also, our Cobb family had several dedicated 'relatives' who spent hours and hours sorting through all those 9 different DNA families to sort out which groups belonged to who. Without this dedication (thank you Mike and Robert), we would not be as far along in this as we now are. Other similar named families, including another Cobb family who grew up in the same town as my DNA donor Cobb, learned through having her brother's DNA tested that she had only ONE matching marker/number with ours. Being neighbors with the same surname does not a family make. giggle. She and I are now close friends who call each other Cobb-non-Cobb cousins - giggle - and we continue to share genealogy concerns. However, there did not seem to be anyone as dedicated on HER Cobb line willing to take the time and effort to sort through the various tests to find her 'near-relatives.' So you get to meet great friends this way as well as relatives. I only mentioned the two companies who seem to be doing the family tree searches and who (sometimes) are willing to help you find your relatives along with collecting the money for the testing. The company we used for our Cobb DNA originally was Relative Genetics and that company is now defunct. While they passed along the marker/numbers to the purchasing company, due to concerned privacy issues, the sample itself did not get passed along - meaning that we have to start from the beginning to have a larger sample tested.... sigh. Again - do your research before choosing which company you use. Margie -----Original Message----- From: Judie Cook Sent: Apr 17, 2014 1:12 PM To: Margie Cc: norcal@rootsweb.com, djsmith4927@comcast.net Subject: Re: [NORCAL] Beyond your brick wall Well said Margie... I might add that the National Geographic also has DNA testing available to those of us who want to know more about from whence we came!!! Happy holidays to all...ðð Judie Cook On Apr 17, 2014 4:02 PM, "Margie" <[1]twigsnbranches@earthlink.net> wrote: Donna: I presume you are asking about DNA testing for genealogy research? This is just an example. Contact me directly and I will give you more specifics. References 1. mailto:twigsnbranches@earthlink.net