Have you ever wondered why you would want to test your Y DNA? What would a Y DNA test tell you about which ancestors? What would it mean to you and how would it help your genealogy?
If you’re like most genealogists, you want to know every single tidbit you can discover about your ancestors – and Y DNA not only tells males about people they match that are currently living and share ancestors with them at some point in time, but it also reaches back beyond the range of what genealogy in the traditional sense can tell us – past the time when surnames were adopted, peering into the misty veil of the past!
If you aren’t a male, you can’t directly test your Y DNA, because you don’t have a Y chromosome, but that’s OK, because your father or brother or another family member who does carry the same Y chromosome (and surname) as your father may well be willing to test.
What Is Y DNA?
Y DNA a special type of DNA that tells the direct story of your father’s surname line heritage – all the way back as far as we can go – beyond genealogy– to the man from whom we are all descended that we call “Y line Adam.” In the pedigree chart below, Y DNA is represented by the people with blue squares – generally the surname line.
Y DNA is never mixed with the mother’s DNA, so the Y DNA of the blue line of ancestors above remains unbroken and intact and the Y DNA is passed from father to only their male children. The Y chromosome is what makes males male, so females never inherit a Y chromosome. Of course, that means females can’t take Y DNA tests, so they have to ask a family member to test who carries the Y chromosome of the line they are interested in.
Because the surname doesn’t typically change for males between generations, this test is particularly powerful in identifying specific lineages of the male’s surname. For men looking to identify their paternal line, Y DNA testing is extremely powerful!
Y DNA testing is a great way to determine which ancestral line of a given surname a male descends from.
Want to see how this works? Family Tree DNA provides 13 great tools for every Y DNA customer. Let’s take a look!
Haplogroup
Everyone who tests their Y DNA at Family Tree DNA receives a haplogroup assignment. Think of a haplogroup as your genetic clan. Haplogroups have a history and a pedigree chart, just like people do. Haplogroups and their branches can identify certain groups of people, such as people of African descent, European, Asian, Jewish and Native American.
While the Y DNA is passed intact with no admixture from the mother, occasionally mutations do happen, and it’s those historical mutations that form clans and branches of clans as generation after generation is born and continues to migrate to new areas.
If you take any Y DNA test at Family Tree DNA, you will receive a haplogroup prediction. In the following example, the gentleman received haplogroup C-P39 as his haplgroup prediction.
Let’s look at an example.
Y haplogroup C arose in Asia and subgroups are found today in parts of Asia, Europe and among Native American men.
Recently, by utilizing the Big Y test, an advanced specialized test that scans the majority of the Y chromosome for mutations, the haplogroup C tree was extended by several branches at Family Tree DNA.
With regular STR marker testing, which is the Y DNA test you purchase from Family Tree DNA, this particular haplogroup C male had his base haplogroup of C identified along with the additional branch of C-P39. With additional advanced testing of some type, such as individual SNP testing, panels of SNPs available for some haplogroups, or the Big Y test – testers can learn more about their haplogroups – and with the Big Y, virtually everything there is to know about their Y chromosome.
However, until testers receive their regular STR results for their markers, advanced tests aren’t available to order, because testers don’t yet know into which haplogroup, or clan, they will be placed.
The haplogroup C Y-DNA project at Family Tree DNA provides a map of the most distant known ancestors of Haplogroup C members, including all branches, shown below.
Hapologroup C-P39, a Native American subgroup, is found in a much more restricted geography in the Haplogroup C-P39 project, below.
Tools at Family Tree DNA
At Family Tree DNA, your Y haplogroup is shown in the upper right hand corner on your personal page dashboard.
In the Y DNA section, additional tools are shown. Let’s look at each tool and what it can tell you about your direct paternal line.
You can always navigate to the Dashboard or any other option by clicking on the myFTDNA button on the upper left hand corner and then the Y DNA dropdown.
Matches
The first place most people look is at their Matches page. In the case of our example, he has twenty three 111 marker matches ranging from one person with a genetic distance of 1, meaning one mutation difference, to several with 6 mutations difference. The fewer mutations, in general, the most likely the closer in time your most recent common ancestor with your match.
You can see by just looking at the matches below why entering the name of your earliest known ancestor (under Manage Personal Information, Account Settings, Genealogy) is so important!!! That’s the first thing people see and the best indication of a common ancestor. I always include a name, birth/death date and location.
In this case, it’s very clear the common ancestor of most, if not all, of these men is Germain Doucet born in 1641 in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. And before you ask, yes, it’s rather unusual to have an entire list of men descended from one man, but it’s clearly not unheard of.
As you can see, many of these matches (names obscured for privacy) have trees attached to their results and several have also taken the autosomal Family Finder test.
The different Y-DNA haplogroups listed to the right are a function of the “Terminal SNP,” meaning the SNP that tested positive furthest out towards the tip of the branch of the tree. Four matches have had additional SNP testing which shows their terminal SNP to be either Z30754 or M217.
This gentleman can then view his 67, 37, 25 and 12 marker matches by clicking on that dropdown.
He can also e-mail any of his matches by clicking on the envelope icon or view their trees by clicking on the pedigree icon.
Results
Next, let’s look at the Y-STR results for 67 markers. This page should really probably say “raw results,” because as many people say, “it’s just a page of numbers.”
This page shows your values and mutations at specific markers – in other words, what makes you both different from other people and the same as people you match, which means you share a common ancestor at some point in time in the not too distant past.
The beauty of these numbers, is, of course, in what they tell us in context of matching other people. You can’t have matches without these numbers. You also can’t have maps or anything else without the raw mutation information.
HaploTree and SNP Page
STR markers show mutations in recent timeframes, generally within the past 500-800 years, but SNPs take you back into antiquity – just like your family pedigree chart – working from closest to further back in time .
Your Haplotree and SNP page shows you the tree for your haplogroup – in this case C – designated by SNP M216, shown at the very top, along with all branches of the tree. The branches and leaves are color coded based on whether you have tested for that particular SNP, and if so, whether you were positive, meaning you carry the mutation, or negative, meaning you don’t.
SNP Map
The SNP map shows you cluster locations worldwide where any selected SNP is found.
Matches Maps
One of my favorite tools is the Matches Map because it shows the most distant ancestor for all of your matches that have provided that information.
Hint: you MUST enter the geographic information through the link at the bottom of this map (below) for YOUR ancestor to be displayed on THIS map and also on the maps of your matches.
You can also display your match list by clicking on the link beneath the map. You can click on the pins on the map to display the accompanying information.
Note the legend, as your exact matches are shown in red, 1 step mutations in orange, 2 steps in yellow, and so forth. Be sure to look for clusters, and note that if there are multiple people listed in the same location, their pins will stack on top of each other.
Migration and Frequency Maps
Are you wondering how your ancestor and his ancestors arrived where you first find them?
The haplogroup Migration Maps shows you the path from Africa to wherever they are found – in this case, the Americas.
The Frequency Map then shows you how much of the New World population is branches of haplogroup C.
Haplogroup Origins
The Haplogroup Origins tool shows the distribution of the haplogroup, by region, by match type and count. Please note that you can click on any graphic to enlarge.
For example, this person has one 111 marker C-Z30765 match in Canada.
Ancestral Origins
The Ancestral Origins page shows matches by country along with any comments. These matches don’t have any comments, but comments might be Ashkenazi or MDKO (most distant known origin) when US is given.
Advanced Matching Combines Tools
Another of my favorite tools is the Advanced Matching tool, available under the Tools and Apps tab.
Advanced Matches is a wonderful tool that allows you to combine test types. For example, let’s say that you want to know if any of the people you match on the Y DNA test are also showing up as a match on the Family Finder test. You could further limit match results by project as well.
Be sure to click on “show only people I match in all selected tests” or you’ll receive the combined list of all matches, not just the people who match on BOTH tests, which is what you want.
In this example, I’ve selected 12 markers and Family Finder, because I know I’m going to find a few matches for illustration.
Of course, for adoptees, finding someone with whom you match closely on the Family Finder test AND match exactly (or nearly) on the Y DNA test would be very suggestive of a patrilineal common ancestor in a recent timeframe.
Projects
We started our discussion about Y DNA haplogroups by referencing two different haplogroup C projects. Family Tree DNA has over 9000 projects for you to select from. The good news is that you really don’t have to limit your selections, because you can join an unlimited number of projects.
Thankfully, you don’t have to browse through all the available projects.
- Haplogroup projects are categorized by Y or mtDNA and then by subgroup where appropriate.
- Surname projects exist as well and are searchable for your genealogy lines.
- Geographical projects cover everything else, from geographies such as the Denmark project to the American Indian project.
Some projects focus on Y DNA, some on mtDNA and some include both. Additionally, some projects welcome people with autosomal results that pertain to that family surname or region. Every project is run by one or more volunteer administrators that define the focus of the project.
To help people select relevant projects, project administrators can enter surnames that pertain to their project so that Family Tree DNA can match your surname to the project list to provide you with a menu of candidate projects to join.
Of course, you’ll need to read the project description for each project to see if the project actually pertains to you. You can see what is available for other surnames by utilizing the “Search by Surname” function, at the bottom of the menu.
You can also scroll down and browse in a number of ways in addition to surname.
All testers should join their haplogroup project so that everyone can benefit from collaboration.
You can join and manage your projects from your home page by clicking on the Projects tab on the upper left, shown below.
Y DNA Summary
I hope this overview has provided you with some good reasons to test your Y DNA or to better understand your results if you’ve already tested.
If you are a male and are interested in testing a line that is not your surname line, or if you are a female and you can’t test, you can find a male who descends from the ancestral line in question through all males and recruit that gentleman to test. You can also check existing surname projects to see if someone from your line has already tested.
Y DNA holds the secrets of your patrilineal line. You never know what you don’t know unless you test. You don’t know what kind of surprises are waiting for you – and let’s face it, our ancestors are always full of surprises!
Y DNA Order Options
Family Tree DNA is the only company that offers this type of testing. Ordering options include 37, 67 and 111 marker tests. You can also order 12 and 25 marker tests within projects. I suggest testing at the highest level the budget will allow, but no less than 37 markers. Most people have matches. Some people have a lot of matches and need the 111 marker test to more fully refine their matches to just the ones that may be genealogically relevant.
You can always upgrade later to a higher marker level later, but the combined original test plus upgrade cost more separately than just purchasing the larger test out the gate. It’s really a personal decision based on your goals and your budget.
Discounts
If you have never tested at Family Tree DNA, you can obtain a discount any day of the week by joining through your surname project. Just click here and then enter your surname into the Project Search box, shown upper right below. I’ve typed Estes for purposes of illustration.
You will be shown a list of projects (at left above) where the various project administrators have indicated that someone with your surname might be interest in their project. Read the project descriptions, then click on the resulting project that best suits your situation – generally your surname – Estes above for example. You will automatically be joined to the project you select when you order a product, shown below. After you order, you can join multiple projects.
Next, click on the test level you wish to order.
By virtue of comparison, the project pricing for 37, 67 and 111 markers, above, saves you $20 off the regular price if you don’t order through a project.
If you already have a kit number at Family Tree DNA and have ordered other products, you can sign in, upgrade and order your Y DNA test by clicking here.
Happy ancestor hunting!
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