In a message dated 10/22/02 4:21:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > The mtDNA is interesting. This may be a new approach when their is no > availablity of records. > > How many must participate in a direct line to prove the mtDNA? > > I recently read in one of the emails from a rootsweb where a male line is > using DNA to prove/disprove their lineage to a male up the line about 5 > generations. Mitochondrial DNA is inherited from your mother's mother's mother's mother... virtually unchanged for tens or even hundreds of generations. Bryan Sykes has written an excellent book "The Seven Daughters of Eve." The Y chromosome (which is what makes a baby a male child) is inherited from your father's father's father's father... for many generations, although mutations are somewhat more frequent. There are two BROWN men who didn't know each other and independently decided to get a Y chromosome test. It turns out they were a perfect match, and they both trace their ancestors back to Warren County in the early 1800's. They haven't yet found their common ancestor, but needless to say, they're working very hard together! 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