The Oden yDNA Project is almost two years old. There are seven members, two of who descend from Solomon Oden of Williamson County, Tennessee and five who are believed to descend from Thomas Oden of Charles County, Maryland. Family Tree DNA, where the project testing is done, have make available six gift certificates for the holiday season, four for yDNA testing and two for mtDNA testing. For yDNA testing, you MUST be a male, directly descended in the male line from the earliest know ancestor with your surname. If your line of descent has been interrupted by an adoption, or a female ancestor the your yDNA will not match your earliest know ancestor For mtDNA test, both men and women can find information on their ancestors. mtDNA passes from a mother to all of her children, both sons and daughters, however, only the daughters pass it on to their children, it dead ends in the sons. Whether the person tested is male or female, they will find out about the genetic history of their maternal ancestors. The Oden yDNA Project has a specific need for men with the Oden surname whose Oden ancestors originate in Charles County, and Frederick County, Maryland and in Beaufort County, North Carolina. In Charles County, we are looking for descendants of Francis Oden, who died there in 1726. Francis had five sons, Francis, Pembroke, David, Lewis and Thomas. Francis Oden the younger died in 1772, leaving sons Jonathan, Elias, Vincent and Michael, David Oden lived in Frederick County. We believe there are still Oden descendants living in the county. One descendant of this Oden family was Thomas Oden who lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky and Warren County, Missouri. We believe there are still Oden descendants in both counties. In the case of Beaufort County, North Carolina, we are looking for descendant of Richard Odeon / Oden. Richard acquired land in Beaufort County, beginning in 1700. He died there in 1708, naming sons William, Richard, John, Atta and Charles. William Oden was given land in Virginia, believd to be Lower Norfolk County. The Oden yDNA Project is particularly interested in having one or more men from they two families join the project. The project is open to all men with the ODEN surname. The gift certificates will be awarded on a first come first serve basis. William T. Coles Marleen Van Horne Oden yDNA Project Managers