Ancestry.com is offering a DNA testing for individuals for a price of about $200 per person. The method is they send you something like a q-tip and you swash it around in your mouth against the check. You mail it back and they send you your own DNA code. Obviously, $200 is something of a stopper. I don't know that we'd be doing it so much for ourselves as for succeeding generations. However there would be some potential present benefits for us even despite the fact that we can't obtain DNA samples from our people long dead. For example, Lyn and I might establish the link that we are cousins via Thomas Poythress. We might even be able to calculate (or have calculated for us) the amount of degradatiojn in the DNA reading as it passes from generation to generation. Bud and I would presumablly link back to Thomas via one of the Merediths, etc. etc. Another downside is that the DNA lines can only track parent-gender exclusively; i. e., none of the information for any of our males would be applicable for the females. But, of course, the females can run their own line, it would just be a separate line. Even though our records in general contain many more male surnames than female surnames, this might not necessarily be a loss. If we can document positively a particular marriage we could coordinate some of the prior or following genealogical lines even if they do cross genders. As a practical matter, I think we will have left enough documented evidence on ourselves, even if just hanging out there in cyberspace forever or on paper, that our downstream benefit would be a matter of personal decision on whether it's worth 200 bucks or not. I am saying if this e-mail generates a hue and cry from several of you wanting to do this exercise, I suppose I could say I have spent $200 a lot dumber over the course of my life and would be willing to participate. Maynard