The ever-advancing world of y & mtdna & how it can help you

Earlier this year I looked at using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests for genealogy, looking at how reader Lynne could make use of her matches from this test (the Full Mitochondrial Sequence (FMS) from

I was going to start this month’s article by talking about why we love this hobby so much but I realised that this isn’t really a hobby at all. Genealogy/family tree research/ancestor hunting or whate

I spend a lot of time talking about DNA and I love sharing my experiences with it, but occasionally I wonder what really makes genetic genealogy work for me. Below I’ve distilled my thoughts into four

I’d grown up wondering why I looked so different from my family. But it took 35 years to discover the truth.

‘DNA isn’t a magic bullet,’ says DNA Detective Michelle Leonard. ‘Sometimes people think it’s going to be, and they think it’s going to “throw up the answers”.’ Occasionally this happens, ‘if you’re r

Picture this: you have followed that advice, spending countless hours building your family tree, squinting at faded census records and wrestling with handwriting that makes doctors’ prescriptions look