What does direct line ancestor mean?
A direct male or direct female line is one where the gender of the ancestors doesn’t change from generation to generation. Each of us has only two such ancestral lines, one all male (patrilineal) and one all female (matrilineal). If your line to your ancestor zig-zags between males and females, you will not be able to participate in a project based on that ancestor. Everyone inherits their mother’s mitochonrial DNA, so both males and females can be mtDNA tested. But because only males have inherited a Y-chromosome from their father, only males can participate in Y-DNA surname projects.
A direct male or direct female line is one where the gender of the ancestors doesn’t change from generation to generation. Each of us has only two such ancestral lines, one all male (patrilineal) and one all female (matrilineal). If your line to your Danish ancestor zig-zags between males and females, you will not be able to participate in the project based on that ancestor. Note that because females have no Y-chromosome, they can only participate using their mtDNA results, but if a male has Danish ancestry on both his male and female ancestral lines, he can participate using the results of both his Y-DNA and mtDNA tests.
