Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 08:03:03 -0600 (CST)
To: AfricanAmericanRoots afrigeneas@Lists.MsState.Edu

There are different types of tests used in "Gene Genealogy."

Mitochondrial testing (for males or females) traces your mother's
mother's mother's mother back through ONE LINE of mothers into infinity.

Your DNA is matched against a database of DNA collected in many places,including samples from Africa. So the test may be able to tell you where groups of people with similar DNA live today, but will not tell you the information you seek about your maternal gg-grandmother. My mitochondrial DNA was matched to a tribe in Cameroon, West Africa.

Y-Chromosome testing (for males only) traces the male line from son back through father's father's father through ONE LINE of fathers back into infinity. Again, they may be able to tell you where people with similar DNA live today.

I saw a posting on an international newsgroup where the person was told that his mitochondrial DNA was from Northern Europe and that was likely as close as they could narrow it down.

A third type of test tells you what percentage of ancestry from four
major population groups you may be (%African, %Asian, %European, %Native American). If your mitochondrial or Y-chromosome tests do not test as Native American, but you have oral history that says you have that ancestry, this type of test may answer that question.

tootncmon