Hi Again The name for what you do before you become pregnant is called genetic screening, in which you mostly determine which genetically carried diseases your child might possibly have. I know that among the Ashkenazi Jews (or maybe Jews in general) in the United States have a high rate of Tay-Sachs disease, and the Africans are the only people that have sicle-cell anemia. Also remember that the American Indian did not have an immune system when the Europeans brought small pox and other sicknesses to the New World. Also, I heard from an Indian friend, that Indians also carry a gene that makes them more susecptible to alcoholism; hence, the major cause of the problem on some Indian reservations. Disease killed more Indians than any wars ever brought against them. >From what I have seen on television, a DNA test seems very expensive for just trying to determine whether you are Melungeon or not. I remember that the tests run into the thousands most of the time, and if you have a lot of tests done then you could easily pay $10,000 for DNA tests. I don't really think they are worth just trying to determine race. They are mostly used for paternity tests and court cases (ex. O. J. Simpson). I recently read an article that tied different mutations to different groups of people. The researcher (I don't remember his name) was trying to identify people from their genetic mutations. He found that the American Indians had a distinct mutation that was only found (or mostly found) in groups in the South Pacific... the Polynesions. With this information, he hopes to tie many groups of American Indians to Polynesians that came over to the New World in boats, rather than the Siberians (the "Land-Bridge Theory") that followed their food supply to Alaska. I don't know if there has been an update on this topic, but I did my research paper on the subject of genetics. I plan to major in Biology at either Ole Miss or Mississippi State University. Hope this helps to wet your appetite for more thoughts on genetics... Robby McCain Mississippi _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com