Tracing your paternal line
For tracing the paternal lineage, you will want to order a Y-DNA Ancestry Test. Y-DNA has only 2 types of genetic markers that provide useful ancestral information: STR and SNP markers. You will need Y-DNA STR marker profiles to access our free ancestry web apps. SNP markers are used to trace haplogroups, aka “deep ancestry”, and to confirm a person’s haplogroup and subclade. For most individuals, testing 20 Y-DNA STR markers is more than sufficient for most search and comparison applications. Testing more Y-DNA STR markers is only helpful for if you have already found close matches in the DNA Reunion web app, and wish to compare more markers to increase the discrimination power of the TMRCA calculation. TMRCA stands for “Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor” and is a measure of how many generations ago any two male individuals shared a common paternal ancestor. If you start with 20 Y-DNA STR markers, you can choose to test more markers at a later date if you need them. You can order the following tests for tracing paternal ancestry:
- Standard Paternal Ancestry Package (Y-DNA 20 STR Marker Test), $119
- Advanced Paternal Ancestry Package (Y-DNA 44 STR Marker Test), $199
- Premium Paternal Ancestry Package (Y-DNA 101 STR Marker Test), $339
Tracing your maternal line
For tracing the maternal lineage (mother’s mother’s mother’s … line), you will need to order a mtDNA ancestry test. All humans have 3 regions in their mtDNA, namely: HVR1, HVR2 and Coding Region. The most important and basic region is the HVR1 because it is the region that must be tested in order to use the online search features. As long as you have your HVR1 markers, you can use all of the features in the databases. Testing the HVR2 and Coding regions are optional and only intended for those individuals who wish to confirm their ancient mtDNA haplogroups. You will need to establish your mtDNA profile before you can access our free ancestry web apps. You can order the following tests for tracing maternal ancestry:
- Standard Maternal Ancestry Package (mtDNA HVR1 Test), $119
- Advanced Maternal Ancestry Package (mtDNA HVR1 + HVR2 Test), $189
- Premium Maternal Ancestry Package (mtDNA HVR1 + HVR2 + Coding Region Test), $528