Andrea,
I hope someone can give you some information.
Perhaps the usefulness of DNA testing might depend on exactly what someone is trying to learn?
The whole topic confuses me and I can't find a website that answers my questions.
For example, I would love to be able to prove that my grandmother's father was the man on her birth certificate. But can this type of line be traced?
- man to woman to man to woman/man?
- great-grandfather (?) to grandmother to father to me/my brother?
All the websites talk about the different types of DNA but what does a person do when they aren't researching a straight female or male line?
I heard from a man who was researching a certain family line (say, Smith-Bibbins). He found some Smith-Bibbinses in the census (in another country but born in the right place) and was able to track down the only living male descendant of that family. He and that man both submitted DNA swabs that proved they were from the same Smith-Bibbins family. But they're both men.
My great-grandfather was illegitimate but we don't have a clue as to who his father might have been. Unless everyone whose ancestors lived in that area gave their DNA to a DNA bank, I don't know how we might be able to crack that particular nut.
Regards,
Josephine
