Dee First Y-DNA one part of the sex chromosome pair. Yes is passed by the father to son as it is what creates a male - females do not have it. FamilyTreeDNA Company has many different Y-DNA tests. THe marker tested for Y-DNA use for current genealogy is the STR marker (by current I mean 1 day to 2000/3/4000 years). This type of testing tests a paticular area of the Y chromosome and the test are 12 markers, 25 markers, 37 markers, 44 markers (ancestry.com) 67 markers, 111 markers, walk the Y (a particular type of test) and full genome testing. The MTDNA is NOT part of the 23 pairs of chromosomes, it is inside of the cell but not in the nuceulas as the 23 pairs are. MTDNA only has 17500 base pairs. there are three types of tests. HRV1, HRV2, coding zone. if you don't test the entire chromosome your missing a lot of data. Now on Barton's comment.. MTDNA testing if you do the full test (expensive) is 100% accurate. The problem with testing MTDNA is that it tests the SNP marker this marker is steady (Few mutations for many many generations, thousands of years) so that you will be related to many many be even hundreds of people.. the bigest problem is female's change their maiden names to the males surname.. hard to follow but not impossible. I sugest that if you tested at FTDNA you try to contact the administrator of the MTDNA haplogroup your part of for advise. AGAIN... I sugest that you read my website.... GeneticGenealogy - http://www.geneticsand.us nelda Nelda L. Percival, Administrator of Y-DNA surname projects Gilpin, Cupp, Bonstein and Gillock My Genealogy - http://freepages.folklore.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bonsteinandgilpin/index.htm GeneticGenealogy - http://www.geneticsand.us Blog - http://aircastles-lets-talk.blogspot.com/ GilpinGenetics: http://www.gilpingenetics.us/ Web Mistress for LCRG - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~molcgdrg > From: dee.ziegler@gmail.com > Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 22:12:43 -0400 > To: roots-l@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [ROOTS-L] Autosomal DNA? > > Can anyone tell me -- as DNA testing is further developed, will the > samples already taken be capable of upgrading? My male cousin's Y-DNA > and my own mtDNA are my concern. THANKS for this enlightening > discussion. Dee in Maryland > ====