Bill, Flattery will get you nowhere! I knew I'd be in trouble for posting that information!!! Here's what I did: Go to the Home page: http://www.smgf.org/index.jspx At the top of the page, click on "Search Y-Database" Select: Search by Surname and enter the surname you're interested in; Beneath that, click the box that says "Default Values" (Forget about all the numbers!); Then scroll down, and click on "Search" The search results for Conner show on Line 1 that there are 30 out of 37 matches for the pedigrees that are included. Was one of these from your family? To find out, click on the pedigree chart symbol on the far left on line 1. The pedigree chart that is displayed doesn't go back very far, but it does show a William Taswell Conner, b. 3 March 1855, Pleasant Valley, Virginia. If William Taswell Conner is known to be in your family, you won't find out who the submitter was, because the Foundation keeps all information private for anyone born after 1900: "To protect privacy, we do not reveal any personal information of our participants, or the names of any ancestors born after 1900. You may find references to ancestors in SMGF pedigree charts on message boards and in collections of family trees. Please see the Links page for possible sources of matching information." Well, I think their LINKS page is full of way too many links to genealogical websites and to other DNA testing organizations to be helpful. There would be a better possibility of finding the submitters by posting messages on the relevant SURNAME mailing lists and message boards. For "Help" look at the bottom of that page and click on "Show Help" which explains more about the information displayed on the chart. No way do I pretend to know what all those numbers mean--I just ignore most of them. What you need to look for are the Matches: Matches: 30/37 (etc.) shows the number of matches/markers to your input values. This page sorts results first by surname and then by match percentage. For instance, a 35/36 match ranks higher than a 34/36 match, and a 9/10 match (90%) ranks higher than a 32/36 match (89%). The FAQ page answers all the rest of the pertinent questions anyone has: http://www.smgf.org/faqs.jspx For example: "4. Will I receive my DNA results from SMGF? Due to the nature of our project, you will not receive your DNA results directly back from SMGF. However, your results and genealogy will be added to the Sorenson database, and you can find them by searching for your surname and looking at related family trees." Another DNA project: Our family has participated in the KELLEY FamilyTree DNA project and we don't even have a close match to any of the other 58 participants yet. The FamilyTree DNA project provides information about submitters and their pedigree charts. Family Tree DNA http://www.familytreedna.com/name_search.asp Paula Kelley Ward San Antonio, Texas [email protected] Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. Mark Twain -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2006 8:08 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [VAFLOYD] Website: Free DNA Testing Paula, I have saw this project before and I am interested but i went to the site to see what it was all about. It seems a person would have to be a mad scientist to figure all those numbers out. I'm pretty crazy but when it comes to combinations of numbers and how they relate to each other I'm completely lost. You, being one of the most intelligent person I have had the pleasure of knowing, I'm sure has figured it out. Could you explain it to a 59 year old going on 4 in terms a 3 year old could understand? That is undoubtedly the most complicated set of numbers I have ever run across. Bill