Sandra.....all I can say, and I am just jumping right in here, is GO GIRL GO!!....as far as 'non paternal' events [a DNA description]....yes, this ocurrs BUT....my own opinion FROM experience, if a child is adopted, he should have been told as a child, if an ancestor was raped and another spouse raised the child, usually, sometimes not....the child knows of this, esp if the spouse did NOT adopt the child [happened to my 3x grandmother, she was raped, had a 3yr old son when she md the lst time, he never adopted the child, the child knew it, he was NOT from what I can tell fr reading abt him, disturbed over this fact]. Usually the one's disturbed are the ONES who failed to inform the child of their background! As far as privacy.....our Smothers have recently conducted a DNA study in Tx to disprove a person who took up the Smothers name aft the parents were long dead....and that the whole line was not Smothers nor had a drop of blood of Smothers in them, although 5 of them got into the Ole 300 organization claiming heritage to OUR ancestor! DNA disproved this person was NOT of Smothers blood! The study is done by http://www.familytreedna.com Its the ONLY genealogy DNA in USA and they have tons of privacy procedure. NO ONE but the participants and the group coordinator are privay to the results. A first name is NOT even assigned, only a number and the last name. Presently now we have another Smothers project going on with 6 people in the group, as the cost goes down to $99. each if you get 6 right in the beginning. They have brick walls and are ready to tear down those walls and get on with finding their ancestor's, regardless of ANY 'non paternal event that might have ocurred'. Genealogy DNA is a wonderful tool to use and I highly recommend DNA in groups. Yes, its an individual choice. Sandra, if I can be of any service to you, please let me know. We have just had wonderful communication on this project and we are all anxious to see how we match up to each of the Smothers lines being involved in the project. Our Smeathers md into the Statler line, and this would also be very exciting for us too. Keep me posted and best of luck with your project. Nena Smothers >From: Sandra Jones Hall <shall@pacbell.net> Hi Gina, I don't know why you think I am not very bright. Here is a paragraph I am including with every Questionaire which goes of each man before he will participate. "There is a very small percentage, (about 1%) of men who’s Y Chromosome will not match others of their surname group. If this were to happen to you and you would be very upset, please don’t take the test. The reason could be something like an informal adoption six generations ago, but only you would know how you would feel." Gina Pickford wrote: >>adopted a child and was brought up as a male heir to the Stotler family >>and he was never told.>> <<discovered that one of the decedents was not from the father as the mother was raped in the civil war and the child was brought as their own. This child never knew until he read his mother's diary.>>> <<no safe guards for privacy these days.<< _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus