Alan. Searching for what happened to your grandfather, remember he could have changed his surname. I am finding that one cannot find Polish ancestors in USA and British records unless I use wildcards liberally. Ancestry.com now accepts more liberal use of wildcards, as does Footnote. So, for Panasiewicz, I would try P*n*w*z or P*n*w*s using Exact search, to maximize the results. If they do not like that, try P*n*w*cz, but add the fewest letters possible to catch more variations. I am finding all kinds of records this way in my own research with wild spellings one could never dream up. Another name you should consider is Panitz and variations. I have some Panitz in my Weinzimmer database, and it seems like one surname he could have shortened his name to. Not the same man, mine was a Charles Panitz, born around 1900 or earlier and Jewish. If you decide to do DNA testing, you need to understand there is not just one test. You can get a discount for Y DNA (direct line male) and mtDNA (direct line female) if you join through the Polish Project, and then when your results come in, the very helpful volunteer administrator of that group sends a very insightful explanation of your results. http://www.familytreedna.com/public/polish However, you cannot yourself test for Panasiewicz Y DNA if your father and his father and so on were Kania's, you would be testing only the Kania male chromosome. However, you also need to know there now is now a DNA test they have which does not matter if you are related through the direct male or female lineage, it is the FamilyFinder. This is much more expensive, but tests chromosomes you can have in common with any blood relatives, not just direct line. If you yourself did mtDNA, you would be testing your mother's mother's mother's DNA, along the maternal line. But if I understand you correctly, you do not have your Kania grandmother's mtDNA in you as her son, your Kania father, could not pass it on to you. However, if you wanted to test your father's sisters or their children, that would give you your Kania grandmother's mtDNA. I know this is confusing. Bottom line is you cannot test your Panasiewicz male line DNA unless you have a known direct line male Panasiewicz descendant. Again, the FamilyFinder test avoids that problem. Then if you match anybody in the FF database, you can compare notes to try to figure out how you are related. But it may take time, more and more people are taking the test, but the database will take time to grow. I have a better explain of the different Y and mtDNA testing on my DNA results page. http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thecohens/results.html If you are trying to find possible Panasiewicz relations to test, I would search the World War 1 and 2 Draft Registration card databases for men with that surname who came from the same area of Poland as your grandfather, and then track those men's families forward using censuses, obituaries and public records to find living descendants before just wildly calling every Panasiewicz you find asking if you might be related. Some tools for finding people whose names you know, including public record sites, are listed at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~thecohens/findingaids.html On 1/27/11, Lilly Martin <[email protected]> wrote: >. Hello Alan, > > I think you should go ahead and do the dna test. > www.familytreedna.com > This is from Houston, TX. It is done through the mail and requires no > blood. > > Pay for the cheapest test to begin with (used to be about 100 bucks, now > maybe more?).