I would just like to point out that the Popular Science article is very biased. It completely ignores the only sensible use of DNA in genealogy in other words using the Y-chromosome to identify the genetic lines associated with a particular surname. There are now 830 surnames that are using this technique in a similar way to the Pennington DNA Study and some families are having great successes (as are we). The use of mitochondrial DNA and the DNA Print test in my opinion are simply novelties that will probably never be useful in genealogy and might give one only a glimpse of the prehistory of a very few of your ancestors. It is true one will find many genetic cousins that have a different surname to you if you take our Y chromosome test but that is because surnames are a recent tag. We basically ignore any match one gets with someone with a different surname since the link is too remote to consider seriously. To use our technique sensibly you need to be able to compare your sequence to other people of the same surname who you might be related to otherwise your results are the sound of one hand clapping! The full link for this (rather poor) article is: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/article/0,12543,567794-5,00.html "Gene Pennington" <[email protected]> 12/24/2003 12:14 PM Please respond to genepenn1 To: [email protected] cc: Subject: INTERESTING ARTICLES ABOUT DNA & GENEALOGY I thought you might enjoy reading two (2) recent articles about DNA and Genealogy. Unfortunately they are not available online yet but they should be available in your local library or if you subscribe to these two (2) magazines, you can read them. 1. January 2004 Issue of Popular Science (http://www.popsci.com/popsci/), page 78, titled "Putting the Gene Back in Genealogy". 2. November/December NGS (National Genealogical Society - www.ngsgenealogy.org) NewsMagazine, page 34, titled Non-Paternity Problems in Genealogical DNA Analysis". Both of these articles address some of the same problems we face with our DNA Study and they may help you to better understand the challenges. Gene Pennington (Group 7) Vice President Research Director Pennington Research Association, Inc. www.PenningtonResearch.org ==== PRA Mailing List ==== ==== PENNINGTON RESEARCH ASSOCIATION ==== For more information about the PRA DNA Study, visit our Web Site at http://www.penningtonresearch.org