Y DNA testing is a great way to explore your paternal family line. Here’s a quick get-started video tutorial and two essential tips for taking a YDNA test for family history. Y DNA testing is a specific type of genetic genealogy test that can help answer questions about your direct paternal line. Follow these 3 steps to start your Y DNA journey!

The Y chromosome is transmitted from father to son. Testing the Y chromosome provides information about the direct male line, meaning the father to his father and so on. The locations tested on the Y chromosome are called markers. Occasionally a mutation occurs at one of the markers in the Y chromosome.

Y-DNA testing is a way to trace your ancestry back into the distant past. You can see back thousands and even tens of thousands of years ago. But the trick is that it only traces back the paternal line. In other words, you can only see your dad (and his brothers), your dad's dad (and his brothers), and so on.