A male, say brother or father, can donate his DNA to test for the Y-DNA
haplogroup which descends directly from father to son forever. The male's
DNA can also be tested for the Mitochondrial DNA of his Mother which goes
through the maternal line. If one's male does not share the same maternal
line (cousin, father, half-brother) then a female can be tested for her
maternal DNA which only is passed through mother to daughter (a son who
does not pass it on.)

Say a surname of Jones is tested and matches no Jones but matches Smith
men, then one can assume that (1) there was a name change at one time or
(2) in fact that a Smith fathered the line.

The female mitrochondial results do not depend upon a name and will match
other females in areas where the females migrated and gave birth to
daughters. So if one's oldest documented ancestress was from Italy and one
is tested in America and then is found to have a match with another person
in Australia, one can see the female lines migration.

There is another test given to determine racial identities which Dr. Lewis
Gates uses on his subjects in tracing their family roots which is said to
be done by the company 23 and Me. This is referred to as an Admixture Test.
If anyone has not been following Dr. Gates programs they are now on PBS-TV
on Sundays. They may be repeated at another time in some areas of the
country. Greatly informative.

I am the administrator of the Langford/Lankford DNA Project and the results
are open to the public for viewing at FamilyTreeDNA.

We have matched families who are not Langfords. We have not matched other
Langfords who have lived in same town or area for a couple of hundred years
and thought they were related.
Which goes to show that all folks with the same name are not related even
though family lore said so ;-)

If one wishes to know about ones paternal grandmother's DNA, then lacking a
living son, a female directly descending from her will have to be tested.
Her DNA does not pass through her sons although it does pass to her sons.

IF one wishes to know about ones paternal DNA, then a male descending from
him will have to be tested. His DNA does not pass onto daughters.

Wikipedia has a excellent explanation with tons of information to read and
cited sources, charts and maps.

Sorry if this seems too long but their is no easy short answer to explain
the science of DNA and all the wonderful benefits it has added to
genealogists' arsenal of research tools.

Tree Mother

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 6:15 PM, Aurelia Brooks <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Karen, Suppose the surname is not related to the biological father's
> name.  Also, if Linda is trying to connect her brother (or herself ) to
> each of these families wouldn't his DNA work for each if he is related??
> I'm confused now!
> Aurelia
>
> From: KAREN DALE <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Monday, April 2, 2012 12:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Is there a way to leave your DNA for the
> future.....
>
> It only works with one family--the surname of your brother. YDNA passes
> down father to son for eternity.
> > Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 14:23:55 -0400
> > From: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Is there a way to leave your DNA for the
> future.....
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> > I'm confused about DNA--actually I know NOTHING about it. If I have one
> > of my brothers send in their DNA do we have to select one family for
> > DNA research? I have three or four different families that I am
> > researching and the DNA would help, but don't want to pay for each
> > family because I hear it is expensive. How do I get started? Thanks,
> > everyone.
> >
> > Lynda Huckaby Bishop
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> >
> >
> > Quoting Steve Stevens <[log in to unmask]>:
> > > I have not seen anyone mentioning joining a DNA Group where you may
> add your
> > > DNA to the surname group and it will remain as long as the company is
> > > active.  This does not mean that your actual DNA will survive, only the
> > > ancestral results.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Steve
> > >
> > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
> instructions at
> > > http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html
> > >
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
> instructions at
> > http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at
> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at
> http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html
>



-- 

"She is insane, of course. The family history has become a mania for her."
Hercule Poirot

http://www.FrontPorchRockerNews.blogspot.com

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Langford
This project includes Lankford spelling also.

"Truth and reason are eternal. They have prevailed. And they will
eternally prevail; however, in times and places they may be overborne
for a while by violence, military, civil, or ecclesiastical."
--Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson, 1810

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html