02/20/2025
Has your family done Y-DNA? If not, do it. It is not the same as AncestryDNA. Probably near 50 million total people have done autosomal DNA testing for genealogy, but only about 1 million have done Y-chromosome DNA testing for genealogy. (I am just guessing on the 50 million based on what I know of the numbers of a couple of the providers.) Females do not have a Y chromosome, but they can still recruit their male relatives to do the testing. Even among my genealogy followers probably only a small percent have had Y testing done on their families. It does cost more. It starts at like $119, but for those that cannot afford it, if you transfer your AncestryDNA, 23andMe, or MyHeritage results to FamilyTreeDNA and pay the $29 unlock fee you will still get a Y haplogroup on male tests, and be able to join surname projects that look at Y-DNA. It is less thorough than Y-DNA-specific testing, but gets you into the projects. Then you can email the project administrator for your surname and talk to them about if pursuing higher level Y-testing would actually be helpful or not. As a volunteer group admin at FamilyTreeDNA myself, I know how helpful it can be on breaking down brick walls, and that while it does not always help it will be more helpful as more people do it.
