In a message dated 08/29/02 11:46:23 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > Maternal lines could potentially be traced through mitochondrial RNA. You > may recall from high school biology that the mitochondria are the > "powerhouse" of cells. They always come from the mother. Someone will start > doing it at some point in time. It is done in reseach. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests are available right now from the same companies which do Y chromosome testing, http://www.oxfordancestors.com, http://www.familytreedna.com, and http://www.ancestry.com/genetics. They haven't been widely used, though, because it's hard to organize a project where the surname changes every generation. I have had my uncle's mtDNA tested. He is in haplogroup U, what Bryan Sykes nicknamed "Ursula" in his fascinating book "The Seven Daughters of Eve." My uncle's maternal line goes back to Emaline (maiden name unknown), who married John Brown and lived in Warren County in 1850. She is the person who inspired my 1850 Warren County census database project at http://www.my-ged.com/apturner. Now if every one with a straight maternal line back to Warren County also had their mtDNA tested, I might find some candidates for Emaline's mother! Ann Turner [email protected] GENEALOGY-DNA List Administrator http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Miscellaneous/GENEALOGY-DNA.html DNA preservation kits: http://www.dnafiler.com