I am not sure how this got to the list, since my question to Karl was in a private e-mail. But, ... On Tue, 30 Jan 2001, karl h schwerin wrote: > I'm not really a genetic expert. However, I think the discussion is > focussing too much on chromosomal DNA. We might get more useful > information by looking at mitochondrial DNA. This, however, is only passed > through the maternal line, so we could document our descent from Elinor, > but NOT from John. > > On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, thomas w kavanagh wrote: > > > Hi Karl: > > > > What do you think of all this Whitney DNA stuff? > > > > You may be the one to speak on the subject. Yes, we could document descent from Elinor [I am new to the list, Elinor and John Whitney, who?] but only in the matrilineal line, via mitrochondrial DNA. And since the name, the patronym, 'Whitney' passes in the male line, the matrilineal mitrochondrial DNA would not help at all. And since the genetic basis of blood group determinants gets mixed up at each genetic split, correlations of blood type and such a large group as the Whitneys, of necessity, becomes irrelevant. Let us speak no more of it. tk Thomas Whitney Kavanagh Curator of Collections Mathers Museum Indiana University