This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/HBRBAIB/1195.1.1.1.1.2 Message Board Post: Bruce mentioned mitochondrial DNA. True, that is something females have, but it wouldn't be appropriate for a Sweet study. Suppose your mother or grandmother was a Sweet: you could test your mtDNA, knowing that you got it from your mother (and from *her* mother before that), but the chances are that your mother's mother's mother was *not* a Sweet. In short, there is nothing about a mitochondrial signature that marks it as Sweet DNA. In contrast, the Y chromosome is passed more-or-less unchanged from father to son, right down the line, and every member of that line is named Sweet (or Swett or whatever). This means that any living male Sweet can stand as DNA proxy for his earliest known Sweet ancestor. By comparing the Y DNA signatures, we can tell which Sweet lines are related to each other and which are not. This is something that conventional genealogical research can (and should) do, up to a point, but DNA testing can take us past the "brick walls" on any and all lines at the same time. The more testees who participate, the more information can be obtained. John Chandler