At 11:42 AM 01/03/2002 -0600, you wrote: >This is great news for those who have a male in the line to test. But for those of us who have no males living or have those males who could or would not participate, what can we do to see which line is ours? >Sarah > Dear Sarah, This was a good question, so I am going to post it to the list as well. As far as DNA testing goes, I'm not sure what avenues may be open to you. Perhaps Mitochondrial DNA testing is an option, but I know very little about it as it did not seem to be of value for what we hoped to accomplish with the Y-chromosome testing. You might want to check into this though and see if it might provide you with some help. I hope that everyone understands that it was not our intention to exclude females from this particular test. That was governed completely by the fact that females do not carry a Y-chromosome (they have a pair of X-chromosomes, while males get one X from their mother and one Y from their father). For many, DNA testing is a hard enough concept to grasp without having to figure out why some can participate and others cannot. But it is my hope that by being able to map out some of our lines by this means of testing, that folks in your situation may at some point be able to identify with one of them through the standard means of genealogical research. If you know that you connect to a particular line of the Payne family and that line has been genetically mapped, than you could benefit in that way. I hope that is at least a partial consolation? Regards, Patrick