“DNA doesn’t lie”. That is a common saying among folks who are familiar with using commonly available DNA testing for genealogy. There are 3 commercially available tests on the marketplace: autosomal DNA (cousin / family finder), Y-DNA (available only to men), mtDNA (available to both men and women to trace maternal lineage).
There are a number of consumer DNA kits but if you are serious about using DNA to find your roots, I have some recommendations:
- Test on both Ancestry.com and 23andMe.com
- Upload your results or test on FTDNA.com and MyHeritage.com
- Upload your DNA to Gedmatch.com
Autosomal DNA
Y-DNA Test
Remember basic high school biology. Our gender is determined by the combination of what we get from our parents. This test is only available for men. Men are XY and women are XX, meaning that the Y-DNA test can help determine a direct male lineage.
mtDNA Test
Mitochondrial (mtDNA) DNA is passed from our mother from her mother from her mother from her mother …. And so on and so on. Both men and women can take the mtDNA test but only women pass the mitochondrial DNA to their children. I don't often recommend this test for the purpose of determining family lineage.
X-DNA results
While Ancestry.com does not openly provide your X DNA matches, if you pull your raw data from ancestry.com and upload it to gedmatch.com or familytreedna.com, you may see X-DNA matches. Men will only get matches on their mother’s side of the tree and women will see inherit matches on both the maternal and paternal line. X-DNA follows a very distinctive path and more about that will come in a future post.
Are you interested in learning more about DNA Basics? Follow me and I'll work to help you understand the nature of DNA as it relates to genealogy research.
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