How Can DNA Testing Help Me with my Genealogy?

Ever wondered if DNA testing could help you discover who your ancestors were or where they were from? Now you can find that out with such a test. Testing DNA was made popular by the numerous high - profile paternity tests and criminal investigations it has been used in. These days testing your DNA is now being made increasingly common due to its use for genealogy. It can now be used in determining ancestry and proving relationships. DNA is something that gets passed down generation after generation. While this happens, some parts of the DNA get changed, while others remain the same. As such, DNA creates an unbreakable bond between generations of people. Using it to construct family trees is the newest passion for many people. It will be wrong to think that a test like this can unveil your entire family tree in front of you. It can’t. Here are things DNA testing can do: It can provide clues as to your ethnic lineagernIt can determine whether you are related to any other living personrnIt can determine whether you and another person or a group of persons had a common ancestorrnIt can determine whether your research for your family true is correctrnIt can determine whether you are related with another person who has the same or similar surname So what kind of DNA testing is available to the public? There are mainly two such DNA tests for genealogy. They are explained as follows: mtDNA Test: The mtDNA is the DNA that gets passed own from the mother to her children without it getting mixed. It is used in determining the ancestry of the mother’s side. Your mtDNA is the same as the mtDNA of your mother, which is again the same as her mother, and so on. The mtDNA gets changed very slowly. If two persons have matching mtDNA’s, there is a very high chance of their sharing a maternal ancestor, but determining whether the common ancestor is a recent one or one that dated back to hundreds of years is difficult with this test. Y Line Test: This test has recently found prominence with people who want to trace their ancestry. The Y line test is done only on males, as this chromosome gets passed down the male line, i.e. from father to son. Shared markers in the Y chromosome will reveal whether two male persons are related to each other through an ancestral bond. The Y line testing is used by a lot of people who have a similar or same surname. This type of Y-DNA is also used for determining whether a group of people are related to each other from the paternal side. Though DNA testing has been available for quite a few years it is only now that it has become popular among the common public due to its reduced cost. Individuals who want to trace their roots can now do so very easily by submitting a DNA sample.