A Y-haplogroup is a branch of the human paternal-line family tree, defined by a shared set of tiny inherited marker changes on the Y-chromosome. Every man alive descends from a single Y-chromosome ancestor who lived in Africa about 235,000 years ago, and the tree has branched thousands of times since. Your terminal haplogroup is the deepest, most specific branch we can place you on — like R-M269 (Western European), I1 (Nordic), or N-Z4762 (Northern Eurasian/Uralic).

FTDNA Big Y is a separate test — they sequence your Y-chromosome directly at very high coverage, and they maintain a database of living testers so you can find paternal cousins. Our report works from the DNA file you've already uploaded (no new test, no extra cost), reads only the Y-SNPs your existing chip covers (typically a few thousand), and matches you to ancient published specimens — not living relatives. If you want a deeper call or living-cousin matching, Big Y is the upgrade path.

Every DNA company has its own product focus. FamilyTreeDNA is the recognized specialist in Y-DNA testing, while AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritage focus their analysis on autosomal DNA — ethnicity estimates and living-relative matching. Genomelink's focus is different again: we specialize in surfacing additional ancestry and trait insights from DNA data you've already tested elsewhere, using our own proprietary algorithm and dataset. This report is one of those additional insights — not something your original testing company chose to report.

No — we read the Y-SNPs directly from a 23andMe v4 or v5 raw file (we also accept a GRCh37 VCF), so there's no new test to take. AncestryDNA and MyHeritage discontinued Y-DNA in early 2026, so those exports can't be used for a Y-call; support for more file formats is on our roadmap. Click join now and we'll tell you within seconds whether your file has the Y-chromosome coverage needed.

We'll tell you. The free preview includes an eligibility check — if your file falls below the coverage floor for a confident call (typically <1,000 usable Y-SNPs), you won't be charged and we'll suggest a higher-coverage upgrade test as a partner referral. The most common cause is an older AncestryDNA chip that doesn't cover the Y well, or a female sample with no Y-DNA at all.

We only place you on a branch your markers actually support. The free preview runs an eligibility check first — if your file doesn't have enough usable Y-SNPs for a dependable call, we tell you and you're not charged. For files that pass, we show two depths side by side: the branch we can stand behind, and a provisional branch one step deeper that your markers hint at but can't yet confirm. You always see both the depth we vouch for and the depth we're suggesting — so there's no “my other test says something different” surprise.

No — and we want to be upfront about it. Living-relative matching requires a database of other tested customers, which we don't maintain. The "relatives" in this report are ancient: people from archaeological sites whose remains have been sequenced and published in peer-reviewed research. They're your distant paternal cousins from deep history, not contacts to message.

We refresh our dataset as new ancient-DNA research and public Y-tree data become available. Paid customers receive updated reports automatically when relevant database updates are released, at no extra cost.

The report is built from open-access scientific datasets, public Y-chromosome tree resources, and academic ancient-DNA literature. Full reports include a Sources section showing where the key data points and figures came from.