John/Maureen: This is fascinating, and I will help coordinate this type of study with other family lines if it really works. Can you send me any of the info/links you have? It is still unclear, to me, how they can determine, with at least 99% assurance, a direct descendancy going back more than a few generations. But, sure, I would participate if I had written assurance that the data was going to be used soley for the purposes of genealogy, and then discarded. I wonder how many generations they can go back? My own direct ancestry goes to Ruth Whitney, who married John Shattuck. Ruth's parents were John Whitney and Ruth Reynolds -- and that's a loooooong time ago .... could they really determine a definite link? Could they even get samples? I suppose that knowing blood types would rule out certain individuals yet it would not prove anything for certain. We have many more links to modern Whitneys through my Wallace *cousins* in Massachusetts. The DNA breakdown is interesting and I plan to learn more about this today. I will report back to the group once I get the details. Steven ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maureen" <abc@empire.net> To: <WHITNEY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 10:48 AM Subject: Re: [WHITNEY-L] DNA Evidence of Descent??? > I would also participate in this study. I am O neg. blood type. This is not > enough information. They have a mouth swab test that is done now.Not > invasive at all. I hear it is very accurate. I do not have much information > on this but hear it is excellent. > Maureen > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John E Fischer" <fischerj@one.net> > To: <WHITNEY-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 10:04 PM > Subject: [WHITNEY-L] DNA Evidence of Descent??? > > > > WRG > > > > Has anyone in the Group considered the possibility of doing DNA > comparisons to find out if we can 'prove' descent from say John & Elinor? (I > > happen to be from the John/Elinor group but the same thing could be done > in each of the other groups.) With the good sized population we have > > who are all descendants of one pair perhaps we could be of value to > someone's study of DNA and descent. Sounds to me like it could be a win > > win study. What do you think? I for one would gladly donate a sample of > blood to compare with the group to see if relationship could be > > established. > > > > John > > > > > > > >