We started out making use of the 12-marker test to determine if all men with MONTAGNE variant surnames are related. Once a volunteer has a 12 for 12 match, we encourage volunteers to refine to the 37-marker test to see if we can distinguish various branches of our family. Mutations on the 37-marker test are helping us to identify descendants of the different branches of the family.

We would like to continue to test male descendants of other known branches of the family, as well as men whose origins are still unknown. The larger the database, the more useful it becomes!

And now women can participate, too! The mtDNA test establishes an all-female line, so the information derived from the test is quite different from the information derived from the Y-DNA test. The mtDNA test establishes deep ancestry, including ethnicity. That raises interesting questions. Perhaps we can find women descended on all female lines from a suspected Indian female ancestor? That might solve the persistent family rumor of Indian blood, which none of us have been able to find with traditional genealogical research but we could with mtDNA testing! And we can start answering questions about possibly related women, such as Margaret LOVE and Sarah (maybe LOVE, maybe SMILEY) who married Montanye brothers in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.  As of 2017, we will now be adding the Family Finder test, so that any descendant of Dr. Johannes de la Montagne, male or female, can find more relatives.