Can a person trace their ancestries through DNA tests?
Yes, and no. A man’s paternal ancestry can be traced using the DNA on his Y chromosome (Y-DNA) through Y-STR Testing. This is useful because the Y chromosome, like many European surnames, passes from father to son, and can be used to help study surnames. Women who wish to determine their paternal ancestry can ask their father, brother, paternal uncle, paternal grandfather, or a cousin who shares the same paternal lineage to take a test for them. The Y DNA lineage from father to son can have complications including mutation and false paternity (i.e. the father in one generation is not the father in birth records), a discovery that might upset some people. Maternal DNA is generally harder to correlate with surnames because the mother displaces the father’s maternal DNA (from his mother). Also, a daughter cannot transmit her father’s Y DNA to her sons and a son cannot transmit his mother’s maternal DNA to his children. The most common complaint from DNA test customers is the failure of th
