By: Roberta Estes
I’m thrilled to announce the color print version of my book, “The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA: Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA.”
This new full-color version of the book was requested by readers. Both the black and white print version, as well as the color e-book are still available too, giving purchasers three choices.
I wrote this book to provide genealogists with education about DNA testing for genealogy, and instructions for how to use these tools individually, as well as in combination. FamilyTreeDNA’s tests and tools are unique in the industry and have great potential to solve long-standing mysteries.
FamilyTreeDNA is the only vendor who provides four different types of DNA testing and matching:
- Y-DNA for males: a specific test for the direct paternal (surname) lineage
- Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) for everyone: a specific test for your direct matrilineal line – your mother’s mother’s mother’s direct line up your tree through all females
- Family Finder: autosomal DNA for everyone that provides DNA matches for all ancestral lineages, generally through the 5th or 6th generation, but sometimes further back in time. Additionally, mid-range Y-DNA haplogroups are provided free of charge to testers.
- X-DNA through Family Finder – The 23rd chromosome determines sex and is inherited similarly to autosomal DNA, but with a unique and specific inheritance path that helps determine the ancestors who contributed matching X segments of DNA.
With four tests available for genealogy, plus tools like Discover™, Family Matching, and Group Projects, FamilyTreeDNA offers multiple innovative methods and unique resources to learn more about your ancestors and break down brick walls.
Additionally, this 247-page book includes:
- Genetic genealogy education – how DNA works for genealogists, and why
- 267 images
- 288 footnotes
- 12 charts
- 68 tips
- An 18-page glossary
- Case studies
Each section of the book describes who should test and how to utilize the various tools to understand and get the most out of your results. Many people combine products and use features like advanced matching to reveal even more information about their ancestors.
Testing close relatives with Family Finder, especially combined with your own results, provides you with results and matches that you don’t have. The autosomal DNA of your ancestors is divided in every downstream generation, so your family members will carry ancestral segments that you don’t – and vice versa.
Testing specific relatives for Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA provides information about targeted lineages. You may even be lucky enough to discover that others descended from your ancestors have already tested and joined Group Projects.
Setting Yourself Up for Success
The first part of the book provides readers with step-by-step instructions to set themselves up for success. One might view this as “housekeeping,” but I prefer to view this as insurance!
We review:
- Account and privacy settings
- Genealogy information that you need to provide to get the most out of your test
- Completing information about your earliest known maternal and paternal ancestors, when and where they lived
- Why is location and surname information important?
- Beneficiary information – who do you want to obtain ownership of your DNA test when you join your ancestors?
- Kit manager – is someone else authorized to manage your kit for you?
- Notification preferences
- Project administrator permissions for projects you join
- Trees and why they are important
Y-DNA – Your Father’s Story
The 79-page Y-DNA section covers a LOT of ground.
First, we discuss:
- The different types of markers
- Short tandem repeats (STRs) versus single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
- When each is used and what they mean
Don’t let these big names be off-putting. That’s why I wrote this book, making it easy to understand!!
Of course, matching with other testers is important. In fact, that’s the whole point of DNA testing. FamilyTreeDNA provides matching at five different STR levels (12, 25, 37, 67, and 111 markers,) plus Big Y matching. How do you interpret these results?
Very granular, often family-specific, haplogroups are determined with the Big Y-700 test. Why do you want to order or upgrade to this test, and how can haplogroup ages help your genealogy?
Discover
The new wickedly-cool Discover tool provides even more information – including haplogroup ages and ancient DNA connections. Most, but not all Discover features are publicly available. Some features, such as your own Match Time Tree and Globetrekker are available only to testers. They are very specific to your results. Your personal Match Time Tree displays your Big Y matches in genetically and genealogically relevant order.
In this portion of the book, you’ll learn more about your ancestral and haplogroup origins, along with some down-in-the-weeds information if you’re interested in learning more about the underlying science.
Y-DNA Trees
FamilyTreeDNA also provides multiple ways to view their genetic haplotree, including a public tree for everyone with countries of origin, the Big-Y Block Tree, the Haplogroup and SNP tree, the Time Tree, and several more.
Favorite Y-DNA tools include migration maps and the state-of-the-art animated Globetrekker that tracks your ancestor’s migration path.
Group Projects
Discover provides Suggested Group Projects for you to join based on projects other men with the same haplogroup have joined. Group Projects and their volunteer administrators have a specific interest in either a surname, geography or haplogroup and are immensely helpful. There’s even a Group Time Tree that includes surnames and the earliest known ancestor of each project member in the Group Time Tree.
We close the Y-DNA section with four case studies that illustrate different ways to use Y-DNA successfully for genealogy.
Y-DNA is the perfect test for men seeking a biological surname.
Mitochondrial DNA – Your Mother’s Story
Just like Y-DNA is your father’s story, mitochondrial DNA is your mother’s story.
Inherited directly through your direct maternal line, and never admixed with any DNA from the other parent, the story of mitochondrial DNA is told through regularly occurring mutations, passed through a line of all females.
Mitochondrial mutations are measured somewhat differently than Y-DNA or autosomal mutations, so we spend some time describing the various mutation types, what they mean, and why they are (or aren’t) important for your genealogy.
Mitochondrial DNA matches are grouped by “genetic distance.” What does genetic distance mean, and how can you effectively use it for genealogy?
Mitochondrial mutations determine and define haplogroups, but not all mutations are included in haplogroup definition. Why? Are they still relevant to my genealogy?
What do haplogroups and mutations tell me about my ancestors? Did you know that some mutations reverse themselves, and some are “unstable.” What does that mean, and how can you tell the difference?
What do matches mean to me, and how can I wring even more information out of my matches?
mtDNA Tools
Currently, the mtDNA Tree of Humankind is being rewritten by the Million Mito Team at FamilyTreeDNA using mitochondrial test results as well as publicly available academic sequences.
The new mitochondrial phylogenetic haplotree, MitoTree, will provide about five times greater refinement and, when released, will include a brand-new tool, MitoDiscover, similar to Discover for Y-DNA.
I’ve provided a couple of sneak previews in the book, and I can hardly wait for the release.
We close this section with four case studies, one of which broke down several brick walls by incorporating autosomal DNA results, too.
Mitochondrial DNA is the least utilized and most underestimated DNA test for genealogy.
Autosomal DNA – The Family Finder Test
Everyone loves autosomal DNA because it links you with cousins and relatives from at least 32 ancestors, five generations back in time, and likely more. I have some confirmed solid matches back nine or ten generations. It all depends on how the DNA is passed down during recombination, who else that descends from that ancestor has tested, and if you received any of the same DNA.
Of course, not everyone who descends from ancestors beyond great-grandparents will match each other. Therefore, I begin the Family Finder autosomal section with basic education about reasonable goals and how autosomal DNA testing works.
Because autosomal DNA testing does span many lines, it’s critical for vendors to provide testers with tools to help identify which lines and ancestors their matches come from.
Autosomal Tools
FamilyTreeDNA is the only vendor that provides Family Matching, activated by linking known matches to their profile cards in your tree. Linking enables FamilyTreeDNA, through triangulation, to determine on which “side,” maternal, paternal, or both, your matches originate.
You don’t necessarily need to link your parents, although if they are available to test, that’s clearly beneficial. Aside from parents, the more people you do link, the more maternally and paternally bucketed matches you’ll have. Closer matches are always the best, which is one reason I test aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Of course, shared matches are crucial as well, and you can view your matches in the Chromosome Browser.
FamilyTreeDNA also provides a unique Matrix that allows you to select up to ten individuals to determine if they also match each other in addition to matching you.
Autosomal Testing for Ethnicity
Ethnicity is a favorite of genealogists, especially for those who are hunting for “minority” ethnicity, meaning minority to you. FamilyTreeDNA provides the chromosome address of your ethnicity segments, allowing you to determine which people you match on those segments.
In my case, my Native American ethnicity segments were the key to unlocking the identity of a previously unknown Native American ancestor. She was subsequently confirmed as Native by mitochondrial DNA testing of a descendant who descended from her through all females to the current generation, which can be male.
Additionally, I can view the confirmed haplogroups of my Family Finder matches if they have taken either the Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA test.
Free Autosomal Uploads
Another benefit at FamilyTreeDNA is that they accept raw DNA file uploads from other vendors such as MyHeritage, Ancestry, and 23andMe. You don’t have to retest to receive matches for free, and you can unlock the advanced tools at FamilyTreeDNA for only $19 – a real value.
The X Chromosome – A Unique Inheritance Path
FamilyTreeDNA is the only vendor that provides X-DNA matching which you receive free with the Family Finder test or DNA upload from another vendor.
X-DNA, sometimes confused with mitochondrial DNA (but it’s not at all related) is inherited differently than other types of DNA.
Chromosome 23 is the sex selection chromosome. Men receive an X chromosome from their mother, and a Y from their father – which makes them male.
This also means that men ONLY inherit an X chromosome from their mother. The X chromosome is inherited in the same way that autosomal DNA is inherited – meaning that a male can receive a combination of his maternal grandmother’s and his maternal grandfather’s X chromosome, or an intact copy of the X chromosome belonging to either his maternal grandmother or maternal grandfather.
Women, on the other hand, receive an X chromosome from both parents, which makes them female. They inherit their X chromosome in the same way that chromosomes 1-22 are passed to them through recombination.
This unique X chromosome inheritance path means that part of the genealogist’s detective work is already done for them. You immediately know that any X-match with a male comes from ancestors on HIS mother’s side. If the tester is a male, the common ancestor is on HIS mother’s side too.
Looking back in your pedigree chart, the ancestors from whom you can inherit X-DNA become more restricted with each distant generation because males only inherit the X chromosome from their mother.
I’ve provided a special X-DNA inheritance chart and tables that explain how to calculate how much X-DNA you would expect to inherit in any generation.
Because X-DNA isn’t divided as often, it has the ability to reach further back in time in our trees, providing the potential to solve long-standing mysteries.
Don’t neglect your X!!
Advanced Matching
Because FamilyTreeDNA provides four unique genealogy tests, and multiple “level” options within those tests, they also provide an Advanced Matching tool that allows you to select any level of Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA matching, Family Finder matching, and X-DNA matching. Results can be limited to matches with a full or partial surname search, or you can also limit the results to a specific Group Project.
For example, this combined matching ability allows people with Y-DNA matches to see if their Family Finder matches include anyone with that surname, or even with a similar surname.
Advanced Matching is very flexible, but often forgotten. I use it regularly.
Group Projects
What is a Group Project, and why do you care? They’re actually VERY beneficial, and there are thousands to choose from!
Group Projects are projects established by volunteers with a specific focus. For example, the Estes DNA project, the American Indian project, the French Heritage DNA Project, or even a specific haplogroup project.
I cover what to expect and how to find and join relevant projects.
I particularly love Group Projects as a vehicle to search for people who descend from my ancestors who have already taken a DNA test. If I don’t match participants, I often reach out to them through the Project Administrator or through FamilyTreeDNA directly to offer an upgrade to either the Big Y-700 test or a mtFull Sequence test if they have not yet taken the test I’m interested in. These results benefit both the tester and me as a descendant who doesn’t carry the Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA of that particular ancestor.
For example, I’ve found several ancestors, both male and female, in the Acadian AmerIndian Ancestry and the Mayflower projects, respectively.
You might be wondering about what I “do” with those ancestral haplogroups, and why they are important.
DNA Pedigree Chart
For lack of a better word, I “collect” the haplogroup information of each of my ancestors and track them on a pedigree chart.
This information isn’t just interesting, it’s useful. For example, it’s important to know where my ancestor’s closest matches are from. It’s critical to know which matches they are closest to, and who those matches descend from.
We often think we know where our ancestors “came from,” but the Y-DNA and mitochondrial haplogroups, along with their geographic history and the location of matches sometimes inform us differently.
You really don’t know what you don’t know – and DNA testing is the only way you will ever uncover much of this information.
I include instructions for how to create your own DNA pedigree chart.
Third Party Tools
I’ve included a section about how to use my favorite third-party tools with my FamilyTreeDNA results, covering both Genetic Affairs who provides clustering tools, and DNAPainter who provides chromosome painting.
I use Genetic Affairs to cluster matches and then identify the common ancestor for the people in the cluster. I then paint those matches to DNAPainter which allows me to color code those matches to a specific ancestor using the genetic location information from the FamilyTreeDNA chromosome browser AND ethnicity segments.
FamilyTreeDNA is the only vendor that offers both of those useful features.
Step-by-Step Roadmap
For those who follow my blog, DNAeXplained, you know that I’m a big fan of step-by-step instructions. This book isn’t any different, so I close by creating a step-by-step roadmap for you for all four types of DNA testing along with both third-party tools
- Y-DNA
- Mitochondrial DNA
- Family Finder autosomal
- Family Finder X-DNA
- Genetic Affairs
- DNAPainter
You’ll put together a roadmap for yourself along with how to locate other cousins or testers who are relevant to your genealogy using genealogy tools across the industry. Then, based on the earlier instructional sections, we detail how to utilize these results for your genealogy.
DNA testing is an investment in the long haul, so don’t forget to check back and review your matches from time to time. The gold nugget you need may be waiting for you!
Glossary
Last, but not least, of course, is the glossary which serves as a “go to” reference when you have genetic genealogy questions. One reader said that the glossary alone is worth the price of the book!
About The Author
Roberta Estes
Genealogy Subject Matter Expert
Roberta Estes, author of the book, DNA for Native American Genealogy, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA, and the popular genetic genealogy blog DNAeXplained is also a scientist, National Geographic Genographic affiliate researcher, Million Mito team member, and founding pioneer in the genetic genealogy field.
An avid 40-year genealogist, Roberta has written over 1600 articles at DNAeXplained about genetic genealogy as well as how to combine traditional genealogy with DNA to solve those stubborn ancestor puzzles. Roberta took her first DNA test in 1999 and hasn’t stopped.