One of the most exciting parts of 23andMe’s Personal Genome Service™ is discovering your genetic ancestry. Suddenly your family tree has branches that reach back thousands of years into the prehistoric past.
At present, 23andMe customers can trace two branches of their genetic family tree – one that follows the all-female line on the maternal side (through mitochondrial DNA) and another the all-male line on the paternal side (through the Y chromosome).
Not all DNA is created equal, however: males have both mitochondrial DNA AND a Y chromosome, so they can trace both their maternal and paternal ancestry. Females, who have mitochondrial DNA but no Y chromosome, can trace only their maternal ancestry.
So how can females discover their paternal history? One solution is to ‘borrow’ the Y chromosome of her most immediate paternal ancestor – her father. A female can have her father send his own DNA sample to 23andMe, then examine his Y chromosome as a way of understanding his paternal ancestry and her own.
But what if a woman’s father can’t or won’t share his DNA? By sharing 23andMe accounts with the right male relative, a woman can still discover both her maternal and paternal ancestry.
So whose DNA can a female customer use, besides her father’s? It could be anyone who shares his Y chromosome – her brother, paternal uncle (father’s brother), or even paternal grandfather (father’s father). The chart below illustrates some of the possibilities in one woman’s family tree; male relatives who share her father’s Y chromosome are depicted in blue.
You may look at the chart and ask: Why not her son’s Y? After all, he’s a male relative, too. But even though a mother shares 50% of her genes with each of her children, only fathers pass Y chromosomes to their sons. So any examination of her son’s Y chromosome would yield not her father’s paternal history, but her husband’s.
The woman whose family tree is shown here (“Me”) could determine her paternal ancestry using the Y chromosomes of males who are colored blue.
I’m just learning about 23andme, so excuse my uneducated questions, but here I go. I have very few male relatives left. I still have my dad and there is also one of his first cousins (his mom’s brother’s son). They are both in their 90s. What can I learn from either of their DNA? Is it only about their fathers? Since the cousin is on my grandmother’s side, can I then learn about her side of the family? So in order to learn about both paternal and maternal lines on my dad’s side of the family, I’d have to get both their DNA?
Whose DNA would tell me about my mom’s side of the family?
You can actually learn a lot about your own ancestry by looking at the DNA of your dad, his cousin and yourself. Let’s start with you. Your mitochondrial DNA will tell you about your all-female ancestry, i.e., your mother’s mother’s mother’s mother, and so on back a few thousand years (exactly how far back depends on what that ancestry is). Your dad’s Y chromosome will tell you the same thing about his (and thus your) all-male ancestry. And your dad’s mitochondrial DNA will tell you about his mother’s all-female line.
So to sum up, having your dad’s DNA and your own will give you some information about where three of your grandparents’ ancestors came from: both your paternal grandparents and your maternal grandmother.
Your father’s cousin is a bit more complicated. Basically, his Y chromosome will give you a little more another data point about your paternal grandmother’s ancestry. That’s because, even though your great-grandfather’s (your father’s mother’s father) Y chromosome didn’t get passed down to your grandmother, it did get passed to her brother, and then to his son (your dad’s cousin).
I find it really helps to draw a family tree when you think about these things!
I have a question and I’m hoping that what I’m doing is right. In my genealogy studies in 20 years I haven’t been able to get past one of my great grandfathers. I ordered two of your full sets and one of my male cousins did one. I sent the other to a male whose line I believe is the same as mine in other words I think we share the same male ancestor.
Will the tests when they are completed tell me if they share the same ancestor confirming my research.
Hi Clara,
If the male cousin of yours and the other male you sent the kit to share the same Y chromosome haplogroup, it would be consistent with them sharing the same paternal line. But it won’t be enough to prove that you all share the same great grandfather.
I think 23andMe’s Relative Finder will be of great interest to you. Everyday people are connecting with cousins they never knew they had and building up their family trees. I was never really into genealogy, but since I’m started making connections, I’ve been learning so much!
More about Relative Finder: http://spittoon.23andme.com/2009/11/19/introducing-relative-finder-the-newest-feature-from-23andme/
It says above: “So how can females discover their paternal history? One solution is to ‘borrow’ the Y chromosome of her most immediate paternal ancestor – her father. A female can have her father send his own DNA sample to 23andMe, then examine his Y chromosome as a way of understanding his paternal ancestry and her own.”
–Will results from the Complete Edition yield the Y haplogroup? And if so, can this information be used to trace the surname?
Hi Arlene,
Note that there is only one version of the service now — equivalent to the Complete Edition. 23andMe results will yield the Y haplogroup only for men, so in order to learn something about your paternal line you would need to have a brother or father or paternal male relative test as well, and then see what that person’s Y haplogroup is. Many surname projects do use Y chromosome information but they may be tailored to data from their own associated tests, for example the FamilyTreeDNA paternal line testing. However, 23andMe provides data on all of the other chromosomes as well. In theory, surname information could be combined with any such genetic data to trace ancestral origins but we can’t predict how useful it will be for particular individuals.
Hi there,
I have done the 23andMe complete… And had my brothers and father do the test as well.
- Is there a way to ‘connect’ your results to theres so the paternal line on my profile (as a woman) ‘knows’ which person im connected to is my father and automatically comes up with the information? I.e. when you click on paternal line, it knows?
- As a female, when i use relative finder, is it only showing maternal line relatives?
- I’ve found a 4th cousin on RF, who tells me she was adopted. How can i find out if she is related to my maternal line or my paternal line?
So many questions! I am so enjoying 23andMe. Can’t wait until everyone on the planet is using it!
Hi Kathy,
Currently there is no way to connect the paternal line information from your brothers/father to your own account. Keep in mind that the paternal haplogroup represents just one line out of thousands in your family tree — traced through your father’s father’s father’s …[etc] ancestors. You have 22 other pairs of chromosomes that came from both your mother and father, which themselves are mixtures of the 22 pairs of chromosomes they each received from their own mother and father, and so on. Relative Finder matches can be based on DNA from any of those chromosomes, so they can represent potential relatives from either your mother or your father’s side. If one or both of your parents have also done 23andMe and are sharing with you, you can usually figure out which side the match is from by using the Family Inheritance: Advanced feature and seeing which parent also shares segments of DNA with your Relative Finder match. Hope this helps!
Thanks Shwu,
That was such an interesting link – i hadn’t played with the ancestry labs before.
So i compared the distant cousin with myself, my mother and my father. And weirdly: although my parenst have nothing in common when compared, the cousin had something in common with both of them. Why would that be?
Carole (cousin) vs. Kathy Lee (me) 11 40000000 65000000 13.0 cM 3438
Carole vs. Kathy Lee 15 78000000 86000000 6.0 cM 1294
Carole vs. Stephen (dad) 11 40000000 67000000 14.0 cM 3670
Carole vs. Sue (mum) 15 78000000 86000000 6.5 cM 1309
I’d love to find out who our common ancestor might be and where my family originally came from.
Hi Kathy,
It is certainly possible for both of your parents to be related to your distant cousin through different lines. All that means is that you can trace your common ancestry with your distant cousin through multiple paths in the family tree. For example, perhaps your mother shares a g-g-g-g-grandparent with cousin, and your father shares a different g-g-g-g-grandparent with cousin. You therefore share two g-g-g-g-g-grandparents with cousin.
If you post your question and results in the 23andMe community, there are many folks who would be happy to help you make more sense of what you’re seeing in RF and FI:A. Good luck!
Hi,
I deffinatley want to get my DNA tested to see where my ancesters came from. I know that I can only get my mothers line from my own DNA, but I want to get my fathers as well. I believe, if my research is correct, it will lead to Scotland. The problem is…Both my full blood brothers are dead and my father is quite out of it, as far as his mind, and is afraid to do the test. I do have a half-brother. I found him by doing this ancester stuff. My father was married to someone else before he met my mother and they had a son. Will my half-brothers DNA tell me about my fathers line without things getting confused with his mother. She is NO relation to me and I don’t want things getting mixed up.
Thank You, Sherri Small
Hi Sheri,
Your half-brother, since he is a direct male descendant of your father, will have inherited his Y chromosome from your father and thus his paternal line, so his results will tell you a bit more about one line of your paternal ancestry. Note that you can still learn quite a lot (and arguably more) about your paternal side of the family tree from other features such as Relative Finder, which use information from across all of the other 22 chromosomes. Since you inherit a copy of each of these chromosomes from your father as well as your mother, they carry information about both sides of your family tree. Hope this helps!
As a female looking at my 23andme test for health reasons, will my test provide just the maternal side for health issues or will I need a male relative to send his sample in to provide me with additional information? Everyone is talking about ancestry rather than health, although it may not be different, I wanted to confirm. Thank you.
Hi Suzanne,
The Y chromosome, which only men inherit from their fathers, is primarily used for ancestry purposes to trace the paternal line (father’s father’s father’s father etc). The health information at 23andMe relies on all of your chromosomes, which come equally from your mother and father, so there is no need to test a male relative. There is always the possibility that a genetic marker on the Y chromosome is found to be linked to a health condition or trait, but in this case the association would not impact you, as only the DNA you inherit contributes to your health and traits (along with non-genetic factors).
I have no idea who my Father is/was …but I have in the paternal haplogroup a list of males … do I take it this is my Father’s side of the family ???
Hi Eve,
If you are sharing with other members of 23andMe, their paternal haplogroups will appear on the right hand side of that page. We also list haplogroups of some famous men, so you will see those as well. So those do not necessarily represent your father’s side, they are simply examples of other people’s paternal haplogroups.
If you have a brother that had the same father as you, his test will provide information about your shared father’s paternal haplogroup, which you can then set as your own.
Note that all of the other features on 23andMe use DNA information from both your mother and your father. For example, Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder can tell you about ancestry and genetic relatives from both sides of your family. If you have more questions, please visit 23andMe Customer Care! https://customercare.23andme.com/
I am a female who would like to find out my father’s heritage, however he is diseased. My father was also adopted so I cannot use his father. I have a half brother, who shares the same father with me but he had a different mother. What can I expect from the DNA results if my half brother takes the test? Will I be able to determine what my heritage is on my father’s side?
Hi Christina,
If your half-brother shares the same father with you, then his test results will be able to tell you about your father’s direct paternal line (i.e. father’s father’s fathers etc line). Note that all of the other features on 23andMe use all of your DNA, which comes from both your mother and father, and so can tell you something about both of them. For example, Relative Finder and Ancestry Finder identify people with whom you share identical segments of DNA; since these segments can come from either your father or your mother, your matches will thus represent ancestry and genealogical relatives through both parents. Hope this helps. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to visit 23andMe Customer Care: https://customercare.23andme.com/
I have heard that this fall 23andme will have a DNA test for women that will be able to trace her paternal line. Is this true? I have no paternal members to be tested.
Hi Nancy,
As the paternal line is passed through the Y chromosome from father to son, there is no way to trace this through a woman’s DNA.
A related feature that was recently added is the ability for women to set their paternal line if they have a paternal relative tested and linked through 23andMe. Note that you don’t necessarily need your father to be tested; a brother (with the same father) and male relatives that share your father’s direct paternal ancestry such as a paternal uncle, grandfather, or cousin also work for this purpose. You can see information about this and other frequently asked questions here.
I am wanting to get my DNA done but I am not sure if I will get the answer that I am looking for. I am a female wanting to find out my mother’s side, but what I want isn’t a direct female line. The family line is my mother>grandmother>great grandfather>great great grandmother> great great great grandmother> great great great great grandmother. Will I be able to find out my 4th great grandmothers lineage even though my great grandfather passed on the DNA?
Will my father’s mother’s father’s mother ethnicity show up a paternal ancestry test? Is there any test to show that?
[ My Reasons: My great grandfather was adopted, but my great grandparent's adoptive parents knew the birth parents. My great grandfather told my grandmother that he was Romani Gypsy and Hungarian (born in Hungary). So I always believed I was part Hungarian. However in Romani culture, they never inbred with non-Romani. (And surprisingly only have South Asian and Middle Eastern blood -- not Romanian or any other European roots despite their long nomadic history in Eastern Europe)There seems to now be confusion in the family tree who was my great-grandfather's actual mother, two women being connected to him as a his birth mother in the Family Tree (neither being the name of the adoptive mother). I would guess that if my great grandfather was indeed part Hungarian, than he was the result of an infidelity and that's why he was given up. But he could of just been saying that he was *nationally* Hungarian and not "half Hungarian" like it was originally interpreted as and was actually 100% Romani. The paper trails can't give this information, so I wanted to get a DNA test to see if my great-grandfather was 100% Romani or if there really was some Hungarian. No other relatives have Romani or Hungarian blood so we'd immediately know the truth of this story, if a DNA test can pick up whatever the ethnic traces of my father's mother's father's mother is ]
I don’t have any male relatives on my paternal side to have tested. However my brother was cremated and I was given a lock of his hair, can DNA testing be done with this lock of hair?
Hi Jane,
23andMe does not offer DNA analysis on hair, unfortunately. There may be other companies that do but we cannot provide any specific recommendations.
All of the males in my father’s generation are deceased. My brother (same father & mother) – for a variety of reasons – does not want to be tested. If my brother’s son – my nephew – was tested, would that give me my father’s paternal line ? Thank You for whatever advice you can offer.
Carolyn, The short answer is yes.
My dad is dead, and I have no idea about any other male relatives in my family such as brothers and uncles. Can I use my sons DNA to find my linage though mitochondrial dna, thus finding my dads lineage?
No that wouldn’t work. Your son would learn about his Paternal Haplogroup but not your paternal line. While without a male relative on your paternal line you cannot learn about your paternal haplogroup, you can still learn a lot about the paternal side of your ancestry. Because we do autosomal testing, you will get DNA Relative matches from all sides of your family.
Okaye, I have a question then. Since I don’t know for certain, ‘who’ my biological Father was, and if I should be able to have my brother tested (he’s certainly my mother’s child, ‘Mother’s baby, Father’s maybe’), then would the testing tell me if we are full siblings or half sibling? Do I have to report that my brother is taking the test or would it show up automatically that we are related? And would it still make the connection to me even though the tests were done months apart?
You will be able to tell if you are full or half siblings. As long as both of you choose to “see close relatives.” which is an option that you have to select and that you are opted in for DNA relatives your brother will show up in your DNA Relative matches. It doesn’t matter if you took the tests months apart, and no you don’t have to report that your brother took the test. Hope this helps.
My dad is dead, so is there any advantage to getting both my brother and my half brother tested? Or do I just need one? Is there an advantage to my brother over my half brother for any reason? (I’m assuming yes, as I’d find out more about my mom’s side…).
It would be better to have your full brother tested, especially if your half brother and you do not share the same father. Having your full brother tested will allow you to see your paternal haplogroup and your paternal line more clearly.
Can a woman’s autosomal DNA tell us anything about her male ancestry?
Yes, although you won’t be able to learn your paternal line. The autosomes – chromosomes 1 to 22 – and the X chromosome are inherited from all sides of your family tree and therefore capture about both your maternal and paternal ancestry. 23andMe’s Ancestry Composition will break down that ancestry by geographic origin — your percentage of European or African or Asian ancestry. In addition matches found through DNA Relatives come from all parts of your family tree. Together this can give you insight to father’s and mother’s side of the family.