Is there a benefit to using eldest male relative for Y-DNA testing?

Question

I'm a female with living father, grandfather, and two brothers (each with 2 sons of his own) and thinking about getting a DNA testing for Chistmas gifts.    Is there a benefit to choosing the eldest male for Y-DNA testing, or is it better to get Autosomal for him and leave Y testing for later, perhaps using one of the younger male relatives if my Grandfather (who is 96!) is not available?

Answer 1

Test a male of the earliest generation.

Have your grandfather take the following tests from Family Tree DNA: (Y-DNA37, Family Finder, mtDNAPlus) all can be done by using swabs from one kit.

Have your father take a Family Finder and mtDNAPlus test.

Have one of your brothers take a Family Finder and mtDNAPlus test

You and your other brother should just take a Family Finder test.

If you want to learn about your nephew's direct maternal lines then add on an mtDNAPlus test for each.

>>>>>>>>>>>

Your grandfahter's one Y-DNA test covers the direct paternal line for all the males.  The males taking the mtDNA tests will cover the different direct maternal lines for those mentioned.  Everyone benefits from having a Family Finder test.  BTW, the Family Finder testing will reveal if one person is not the child of the assumed father (parent).

Answer 2

The yDNA test will need to be done a couple of times a few hours apart, so someone will need to help Grandpa with the test (taking the swab tests and reading the instructions, etc.)  If it is possible tohave this help on hand, then yes, have grandpa do the yDNA test.  If you can afford more tests, I would do them as Peter suggests.

Please use the following link to purchase your kit if you plan to use FamilyTreeDNA.com:  http://www.familytreedna.com/cj.aspx?ftdna_ref=600

Comments

It might also be a good idea to have FTDNA send extra swabs for GrandPa's kit for storage - you will probably want to expand the Y later. Depending on Haplogroup, the 67 is often minimum.

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"It might also be a good idea to have FTDNA send extra swabs for GrandPa's kit for storage - you will probably want to expand the Y later. Depending on Haplogroup, the 67 is often minimum."

This is an excellent recommendation. I have seen so many people recently who have had a relative pass away and do not have enough DNA in storage to be able to do tests now like the Big Y or potential future tests. The more material you can get in storage, the better.

Answer 3

Autosomal (called FamilyFinder by FTDNA) should always be taken by the oldest / earliest generation possible.  yDNA STR and SNP can be taken by any generation but note that a change can be introduced at any generation. So earliest is best, but not as critical, there as well.  In our surname project, we often suggest to buy a FTDNA yDNA STR 12 marker test through the project (cheapest test) for every older, male relative.  Then the DNA is stored and available to get more testing later (Family Finder, mtDNA+, BigY, etc).  For example, a project member did this for his father over 10 years ago.  His father since died.  But FTDNA came out with BigY this past year.  He was able to order BigY on his father's sample this year.

Comments

Randy sums it up well. Also consider J Anthony Norris' recommendation above to send in extra swabs for elder samples, as too many members have run out of testing material after an elder has passed away. (Extra swabs are only a few dollars each I believe.)

As Randy also mentioned, each generation can introduce one or a few mutations to the DNA (Y or mitochondrial), so bear in mind that if you test the youngest male, you might have a SNP or STR mutation that is unique to that male, that his brother might not have for example.

In the cutting edge Y group I'm in (the R-U106 project) they suggest having the youngest male tested (SNP testing) so that you get the most possible SNPs to work with on the "front end" of the branch. Then you find a distant cousin, a 5th cousin at least, and test them to get a more basal example of which SNPs you all share. Then you can work your way back toward the most recent person, identifying where different branches fit, until you're left with only a small number of "singleton" SNPs that are unique to that young person and his more immediate family. Then you can test those single SNPs in the father for less than $20 USD each at a company like YSEQ.

If that sounds like too much hassle, then you're probably fine just testing the eldest male. ;)

As I believe you've mentioned elsewhere Randy, it should be noted that there are two different types of Y tests:

1) The "STR" tests, which test for "short tandem repeats" in the Y DNA, where a few letters are repeated several times, and these patterns of repeats are inherited largely unchanged.

2) The "SNP" tests, short for "single nucleotide polymorphisms" in the Y DNA, where one "letter" of the DNA switches to a different letter. Like the STRs, these SNP mutations are inherited largely unchanged from generation to generation.

Both have their uses and can complement each other, so it's still worthwhile to have both done if you're really serious about Y DNA testing and genealogical research.

The benefits of doing the more expensive tests is as follows;

1) For the STR tests; if you do the more extensive tests, like the 111 STR test, you get a much more accurate reading that is relevant to the genealogical time frame of the past couple generations. This should help align your testing with your documented paper trail.

2) For the SNP test; if you get the more extensive tests like FTDNA's "Big Y" or FGC's "Y Elite", these test basically all the available base pairs they can on the Y chromosome to try to discover new and unknown mutations that are unique to you and your close relatives. These are the mutations that eventually are used by other labs to do "spot tests" of those particular mutations to find other people who might be related more closely to you. But those other "spot tests" can't happen without people "biting the bullet" so to speak and paying for the extensive tests to find the mutations in the first place.