While it is only part of the solution, I wish that more people would have a man....with the surname of interest....take the DNA test. DNA has already shown that some "approved" DAR lineages are "flat wrong," and many such other "myths" have also been "busted" by this technology. It is not an "end all/be all answer," but to not take advantage of it, where such a male with the correct surname can be found, is a huge omission in most cases. It amazes me that people will spend thousand of hours (and who knows how much money?) researching in courthouses and libraries (and Ancestry.com) for years and years, but they won't spend a few minutes and $150 for a 37 marker DNA test. My own DNA test confirmed that my Davidson family in Cumberland Co., VA was part of the same Davidson family as the one in Buckingham Co., VA....and that helped me to "trace" the overall family back to James City Co., VA by at least the 1680s. I also learned that I have a "Viking heritage" versus the more common "Celtic heritage" for my surname. I never could find anything in "conventional documentation" that proved a "connection" between the families in those two counties in VA. My mother's family had even more interesting results. Her male cousin with the surname of "Brown" took the DNA test, and we found that he was actually a "blood Smith" versus a "blood Brown." Since my maternal gg-grandfather was named Smith W. Brown, I guess that we should not have been too surprised by that result....but nothing other than the DNA test would have ever shown this. My "biological maternal Smith family" has been in VA since at least the 1650s, and I am proud to be a member of that family (and I am happy to finally know the truth....that only DNA testing could have provided). In closing, when I get frustrated with all of the bad data that is "out there," I remind myself that it is "just genealogy." Compared to what is going on in the world these days (like in Japan), trying to prove who my gggggggg-grandfather was seems far less critical. Bill Davidson To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html