Please see the Privacy FAQ page. Personally identifiable information is never presented on this site unless expressly requested by the participant.
Send the Project Administrator an email with the Kit number of the participant you wish to contact. I will forward your email address to that participant, who then has an option of replying to your request or not. Ideally, everyone will reply, but it is possible that the donor may want to maintain their privacy.
Send your relative's name and email address to the administrator. We will
take it from there. However, remember that the potential donor must be an
living male Maxwell descendant. If you prefer, you may sign up for a collection
kit to be sent directly from FamilyTreeDNA.com
.
Yes, quite a bit. Just Google “genealogy dna” or “genetic
genealogy”.
The Y chromosome of a man's DNA is passed unaltered from himself to his son. Also, in western cultures, the surname is also passed from father to son (children don't usually take their mother's surname). Therefore, by comparing DNA of two individuals with the same surname, you can determine whether or not they are related. If there is a close DNA match, then the two men probably share an ancester within recorded history, which could be corroborated using traditional genealogical research.
No. A small strand of the Y chromosome is tested, but the portions (markers) use are inoccuous "junk" strands.
Please contact the Project Administrator.
It could be that a Maxwell ancestor adopted a boy from outside the family. Other causes would involve "non-paternity issues" (infidelity, step-children, etc.) And lastly, the subject participants may not actually belong in the same line because of errors in family traditions or family records.