Y-Chromosome Presentation

This outlines a Y-Chromosome Presentation by Richard Hill that may be scheduled in person or online through the Contact form.

With so much focus on autosomal DNA tests, many people overlook Y-chromosome testing. Yet Y-DNA’s uniquely male inheritance path lets you do things that cannot be done through other test types.

While only males have a Y-chromosome to be tested, female genealogists can usually find a suitable male to represent their paternal line, e.g. their brother, father, paternal grandfather, or a son of any of those men. By testing suitable subjects, you can use Y-DNA tests to check any paternal line in your family tree.

The Y-Chromosome in Your Family Tree

The sex chromosomes X and Y

The Y-chromosome inheritance path

Narrower and deeper than autosomal DNA testing

What Y-DNA Testing Can Do for Genealogists and Others

Confirm descent from known male ancestors.

Find genetic relatives who share a male ancestor in the direct paternal line

Find surname of a male’s biological father…for adoptees and donor-conceived

Define your paternal haplogroup to trace ancient geographic migrations

Who To Test, Where To Test, And How To Test

Males only

Much more than Y-DNA sampling on some autosomal DNA tests

Family Tree DNA

Cheek swabs

25-year sample retention

STR Testing

Short Tandem Repeats or STRs

How many markers to test?

Different thresholds for a match

More markers increase resolution

Can order more up front or upgrade later at a higher total cost

Genetic distance

Examples of Y-DNA test results

FTDNA Account Features for Y-DNA Testing

Settings: Surnames and Earliest Known Ancestors

Settings: Privacy and Sharing

Y-DNA matching

TiP Report

Emails, notes and GEDCOMs

Advanced Matches

Matches Map

Haplotree and SNPs

Ancestral Origins

Y-DNA Projects

Surname, haplogroup, and geographic projects

Examples of projects

How to join projects

Project Preferences

SNP Testing

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms or SNPs (pronounced “snips”),

Haplogroups and the Y-DNA Haplotree

Big Y-700

Big Y Block Tree

YFull and YSeq


  1. DNA Testing Adviser Home
    2. ›
  2. Genealogy Speaker
    3. ›
  3. Y-Chromosome Presentation